“In a few years, the Japanese PV market will be shifted to the self-consumption mode, in which excess generated electricity (via PV) will be stored (instead of being sold) due to declining FIT incentive rates and raising electricity prices, and pushed by upcoming events such as the retail electricity deregulation in 2016 and utility restructuring of unbundling generation, transmission, and distribution in 2020,” said a manager from Sharp, a leading PV system maker in Japan.
The fiscal year 2015 represents the end of “premium” FIT rates that the national government promised to provide during the first three years (2012-2015) of the FIT program. PV homeowners and PV industry participants are uncertain about how much a new buy-out rate will be after this fiscal year. “People who are familiar with the electricity industry are projecting much lower rates — between ¥9 and ¥12/kWh,” commented a Japanese PV integrator about the post-FIT buy-out rate.... Read More Here
