Japanese government approves 19 GW in non-residential PV
Japan’s Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry (METI), as yesterday’s figure’s report says, has shown its approval of about 19 GW of commercial rooftop or ground mounted solar applications from July 2012 until April 2013.
Clear figures that are proof of Japan’s increase in the solar industry is under the feed in tariff (FIT) were reported yesterday by the administrative authority responsible for the photovoltaic installation scheme, METI. The tariff was brought into effect in July 2012.
Though the fact that solar is growing in the country, some details about the time when 18,681 GW approved installations have to be completed and grid connected is not exactly clarified. Bloomberg New Energy Finance believes that between 6.9 GW and 9.4 GW of capacity is going to be added to the grid in the country calendar year of 3013.
Monthly applications are waiting for approval under the FIT scheme, the follow-ups of the reduction of the FIT rate, programmed for applications approved after March 2013 is clear. Installations for non-residential photovoltaic applications summed 7.669 GW in March, as to 5.263 GW in February and 1.892 GW in January.
Installations approved from April 1 receive 37.8 yen/kWH (USD$0.39/kWh).
METI believes that some projects could have been approved, still construction and installations were late, and said that the projects will be looked over.
Almost one forth of PV installations have been proposed on Japan’s second biggest Nordic island, but it totals only 3% of the electricity request. So vast grid improvements could be asked for and some are doubtful that it will happen leaving the photovoltaic installations stranded.