In a country where full-page advertisements for solar homes appear in the national newspapers next to advertisements for cars, computers and televisions, Japan provides an early preview of how government, industry and the public can collaborate to create self-sustaining solar markets.
1997 is recognised as a "turning point that will decide whether Japan's PV sector can grow into an actual industry".48 The 1997 photovoltaics programme proposed by the Ministry of International trade and Industry (MITI) represents a 51 per cent increase from 1996 - from 13.37 billion Yen to 20.2 billion yen ($163 million). The emphasis is on a domestic support programme for solar homes. The table lists the implementation programme of the "70,000 roofs programme".
The number of applications to the programme has grown tenfold in the last five years, resulting in only a 17 per cent approval rate:- 83 per cent of applicants - 9,000 people were turned down. As with all solar programmes in the world, it is very popular. The unmet demand of FY 1996 represents 36MW.
The increasing demand stimulated by the government support is pushing companies to expand. The Nikkei Weekly reports that "Japanese electrical-appliance manufacturers are lining up to get a share of the fast-developing market for residential solar power generation systems". The main companies are Kyocera Corp., Sanyo Electric Co, Sharp Corp, Matsushita Battery Industrial Co and Mitsubishi Electric Corp.49 Residential sales are expected to reach 100 billion Yen (US$881 million) by 2000.
Kyocera increased production by 50 per cent to 9MW in 1996, will double production to 25MW per year and plans annual production capacity of 60MW by 2000. The company is investing 15 billion yen (about US $122 million) in cell production.50 It has formed its own PV distribution and system integration company opening 20 sales offices with plans to open 100 across the country by 2000, and increase employees to 2,500. Kyocera estimates that world demand will be 250MW per year by the year 2000, with 140MW in Japan.51 Sharp has forged an alliance with Fuji Bank to offer loans to home owners.
According to Strategies Unlimited, "One of the key political drivers behind the [Japanese] residential programmes is the upcoming Global Climate Change Conference to be held in Kyoto in December 1997"52 "the conference could generate a heightened level of media coverage that can help educate markets on PV applications and accelerate commercialisation". 53
It must be recognised that the Japanese programme is insufficient to realise the true potential of photovoltaics. At the cost of $130 million a year, it is a fraction of the money Japanese and nearly all other governments spend on subsidising and supporting fossil fuels and nuclear energy. If these subsidies to pollution were abandoned and channelled into solar technologies, the current Japanese photovoltaic programme could be replicated and expanded all over the world with no fiscal disbenefit.
| Previous | Index | Next |