Taiwan's Bureau of Energy held a discussion forum on planning and business opportunities from installing solar PV power-generating plants in Japan. The forum invited experts from the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association (JPEA), and NTT Facilities to discuss the latest market conditions in Japan's solar market.
JPEA noted the nuclear disaster in March 11, 2011 has caused the country to limit the use of nuclear energy and become eager to develop renewable energy sources. A renewable energy bill went into effect in July 2012.
JPEA added that Japan has been providing feed-in-tariffs (FIT) of JPY42/kWh (US$0.52/kWh) for solar energy, which has been helping the market to grow rapidly.
Compared to the largest solar market, Germany, 80% of Japan's solar PV systems are rooftop systems and this figure is only 10% in Germany, said JPEA. To increase installations, Japan will focus on non-rooftop installation development in the future, said JPEA.
In April, 2012, accumulated solar PV installations in Japan were 4GW. This figure is expected to reach 34GW in 2020, and 100GW in 2030.
