The World Smart Energy Week 2013 was held from February 27 to March 1 in Tokyo, Japan. According to event organizer Reed Exhibitions, there were a total of 1,890 participating firms in 2013 including Japan-based makers such as Sharp, Panasonic, and Kyocera. In addition, China-based solar firms such as Yingli, Trina Solar, and Suntech also participated in the event.
According to Digitimes Research, Japan's solar market is likely to account for 10% of the global market in 2013.
The exhibition included some new technologies such as smart monitoring systems and storage devices. The exhibition also invited many professionals to discuss issues such as the soalr power policies of Japan, North America and Europe, the imbalance of demand and supply and trade barriers.
Japan's solar market mainly focuses on residential solar PV systems under 10kW. The government began its buy-back policy in July 2012 that provides subsidies to solar PV systems over 500kW and extends the buy-back period of solar PV systems above 10kW to 20 years. The policy has been stimulating installations of medium- and large-size systems and attracted large-size firms such as Softbank, Toshiba, and Kyocera to invest in large-size solar power plants. In addition, Japan's feed-in-tariff (FIT) is current at JPY42/kWh (US$0.44/kWh), a relatively high subsidy.
