Japan's policy supports the expected decline in the cost of photovoltaics

In Guofu, Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan’s largest solar panel plant is booming. Every day, about 16,000 solar panels of 30 cm 2 in size are produced from here. This figure is very competitive in the industry.

Brooks Herring, the company's executive director named Solar Frontier, pointed out that the plant's production facilities are worth 100 billion yen and the production method is very environmentally friendly. "In the production process, cadmium or lead is not used; the rare earth minerals used, such as indium, are also often taken from recycled products."

After the outbreak of the nuclear power crisis, Japan launched a nationwide discussion on alternative renewable energy types. It is understood that solar energy companies such as Solar Frontier believe that although solar resources in Japan are limited, the cost of solar power at this stage is somewhat high, and there is some political resistance, solar power generation will still play a crucial role.

“Solar energy is currently developing rapidly in Japan. To date, solar energy and nuclear power have been considered by the country’s decision-makers as a zero-carbon power generation model. The current problem is only to solve the problem of practicality and cost.” Kang Tianzhong, President, Solar Frontier Corporation Indicated.

In fact, SolarFrontier’s new plant in Miyazaki is just one of the solar energy projects that have attracted attention in the past few months. In August 2011, Tokyo Electric Power Corporation built a solar power plant in Kawasaki City. Together with the company's other solar power plant on the nearby Yeouido, the total generating capacity exceeded 20,000 kilowatts. In addition, early in September 2011, Kansai Electric Power Co., Ltd. built the largest solar power plant in Osaka with a total generating capacity of 10,000 kilowatts, which can meet the electricity demand of approximately 3,000 residents.

Compared to the continuous rapid installation of global solar panels, Japan’s solar industry has a relatively short history of development. A report on the status of Japan's renewable energy sources in 2010 released by the Japan Renewable Energy Policy Platform shows that in 1996, Japan’s solar photovoltaic power generation was still a blank; by 2009, it had grown to about 2.2 million kilowatts, and it only supplied about 500,000. Household electricity. Compared to 5.34 million kilowatts of electricity generated by Germany, the world’s largest solar energy company, there is still a long way to go. In addition, the cost of solar power in Japan was approximately 49 yen per kilowatt-hour in 2009, far exceeding the 11 yen/kWh for wind power, 12.5 yen/kWh for biomass, and 8–10 yen/kW for small hydropower. Hours and 12-20 yen per kilowatt-hour of geothermal energy.

However, none of these have caused the Japanese solar companies to be discouraged. Companies such as Solar Frontier, Kyocera Group, and Sharp Corporation continue to invest heavily in research and development of new solar power generation technologies in order to reduce costs. Since the 1990s to 2004, Japan has been leading the global solar panel technology development, especially in the field of home roof solar panel technology.

With the help of Japanese government subsidies, the cost of Japanese solar power fell from an impressive 250 yen/kWh in 1993 to 46 yen/kWh in 2004. However, in 2005, Junichiro Koizumi, then Prime Minister of Japan, terminated the subsidy program for solar energy under pressure from the petrochemical industry and the pressure of advocating a free market. Subsequently, the total level of Japan's solar photovoltaic power grid access was overtaken by Germany and Italy and dropped to the third place in the world.

Since then, in January 2009, Japan regained its subsidies for solar energy. With this encouragement, Japan’s solar panel production doubled in the previous year. In August 2011, the Japanese government also enacted legislation to impose mandatory on-grid tariffs for photovoltaics and required its 10 power companies nationwide to purchase surplus solar power. It is reported that the decree will formally begin implementation on July 1 next year.

After the Fukushima nuclear accident, a series of discussions were held in Japan on the future use of renewable energy, especially solar energy. Sun Jung, founder and president of Softbank, proposed that a nationwide large-scale solar field system should be established. According to his estimates, solar panels installed by 2020 will generate 100 billion kilowatts of electricity, based solely on roofs and existing idle land. This statement was supported by the 36 county governments in Japan.

However, those who support fossil fuels and nuclear power say that solar power is also not safe enough, but also has the disadvantages of high cost, power generation, and unstable electricity. They believe that Japan's annual rainfall is high, especially from the beginning of the year to midsummer, most of the country is in the rainy season, so solar power has limited potential.

However, the data provided by the Japan Meteorological Agency strongly refuted this view. The Office's observations from 1970 to 2000 showed that the average annual sunshine in areas including Miyazaki Prefecture, Shikoku, Nagoya, and Chubu exceeded 2000 hours. This compares favorably with the average annual sunshine duration of 1800 hours in the solar energy country Germany.

In terms of cost, there are more and more examples in the world that solar power is currently more cost-competitive than nuclear power in certain regions and under certain conditions. “Since the late 1990s, the cost of solar technology has dropped significantly. It is now entirely predictable that solar power will be cost-competitive even if subsidies are removed in the next 10 years.” US industry expert John Blackburn and Sam Cunningham optimistically stated in his research report published in 2010.