Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) organized “Meeting to Report Results of PV Power Generation Research 2014” on June 24th. Keisuke Murakami, Director of New and Renewable Energy Division under Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), said at the meeting that the Japanese PV market was estimated to be JPY two trillion (approximately US$19.6 billion) in fiscal year 2013.
On June 17th,METI organized a subcommittee meeting for renewable energy. Murakami announced that the scale of Japanese PV market reached about JPY one trillion in fiscal year 2012, created about 60,000 jobs and shipped about 4GW of solar panels, reported Nikkei BP.
“The one trillion yen of PV generation market is accounted for by about JPY 400 billion of solar panels, about JPY 300 billion of land forming and construction costs, about JPY 200 billion of equipment including PV inverters and mounting systems,” explained Murakami. “There are about JPY 900 billion of the one trillion value circulated in Japan, showing that PV industry plays an important role to Japan’s economy.”
In fiscal year 2013, Japanese PV market reached even better results by shipping about 9GW of solar panels and doubling the value up to almost JPY two trillion, pointed Murakami at AIST’s meeting.
Additionally, Murakami explained why the total capacity of certified facilities exceeded 68GW at the end of March, 2014. This is because the Feed-in Tariff scheme for fiscal year 2014 is lower than for FY 2013, triggering a rush of last-minute applications. “If all of the certified facilities start operations, they can generate around 18~19% of Japan’s total power-consumption,” said Murakami. “This amount is close to our 20% goal of energy plan.”
Every year, Japan newly installs 7~9GW of PV facilities. The Japanese government will continue to maintain such steps, said Murakami.