|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Tokyo solar subsidy scheme beats out national PV plan
December, 2008: Tokyo, Japan’s largest metropolis, has refined its 10-year Carbon-Minus program to cover as much as 1 GW of PV systems on residential homes and apartment buildings through a two-year ¥100,000 ($954) per kW subsidy for installations up to 10 kW in size.
|
 |
|
© Tokyo Metropolitan Government
|
|
|
Extra support for Tokyo: Even if a national subsidy scheme for residential PV systems gets bogged down, the citizens of Tokyo will still be in the game.
|
|
Scheduled to start in April 2009, the beginning of the Japanese fiscal year, and continue through March 2011, the overall program will have ¥45 billion ($429.2 million) in the first year. While this would be enough for 450 MW of PV, the funding will also be available for subsidizing solar thermal installations.
The Tokyo scheme has the potential to dwarf a countrywide residential PV subsidy program that the national government is considering to restart its own incentive. In late August, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) submitted a request to the Diet – Japan’s parliament – through the Ministry of Finance for ¥23.75 billion ($226.5 million) in the first year of a four- to five-year program (see PI 10/2008, p. 69). If passed, METI says the initial subsidy would be set at ¥70,000 ($670) per kW for FY 2009, enough to support about 340 MW of PV systems. According to METI, Japan only installed about 140 MW of unsubsidized residential PV systems in FY 2007 (see PI 8/2008, p. 114).
Nobuo Taniguchi, deputy director of planning in the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG), says PV participants in Tokyo would be able to take advantage of both the TMG and national incentives. While Taniguchi did not comment on a possible lowering of the subsidy in the second year, he says the Tokyo budget for solar is not expected to be reduced. The national program, on the other hand, would probably mirror its 11-year predecessor that ended during FY 2005 (see PI 11/2005, p. 58). It was aimed at driving down system prices while maintaining steady out-of-pocket costs to homeowners via a formula of dwindling budgets and buydowns.
After the national scheme ended, the number of local governments piggybacking with their own PV subsidy schemes fell to about 300. How many prefectures in addition to Tokyo are still offering solar subsidies is unclear. Under the Tokyo scheme, the TMG is expected to set up a system of green certificates for trading the environmental value of the PV-generated electricity.
|
back
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|