Published at Renewable Energy World --- San Diego, Calif. — While most U.S. customers are only able to get green electricity by either purchasing and installing their own system or acquiring a lease or power purchase agreement through a third-party company like SolarCity, Japanese customers will soon have another option. Homeowners and businesses unable to install their own systems will be able to purchase green electricity from existing installations, and those solar electricity providers will be able to receive similar benefits as utilities.
Currently, Japan’s electricity market is partially open to private providers, which includes customers with 50 kW of capacity or greater, but over 96 percent of the market is still dominated by ten vertically-integrated, investor-owned utilities. By 2016, the Japanese government is planning to open up the remaining retail electricity market, which includes customers 50 kW of capacity or less (residential and small business) to fully break up the long-standing monopoly.
As of the end of July, over 300 companies have registered to sell electricity as a Power Producer Supplier (PPS) in the future deregulated retail market, which has an estimated value of 7.5 trillion yen (US $73.1 billion). See More Here