The Japanese residential PV subsidy programme, originally planned to end in March 2003, looks set to continue, albeit with a significantly reduced budget.

With 290 MW installed under the scheme since 1997, the rooftop PV dissemination programme has been the biggest single market driver for PV to date, doing much to stimulate a stable demand that has given confidence for manufacturing investments worldwide. It has also served to reduce system prices in Japan by some 25 % over the last five years.

Nevertheless, system prices remain beyond the financial means of most of the population, so termination of the programme without any followon and the loss of annual sales of 115 MW would be a severe blow for the Japanese and broader industry.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has requested 10,5 billion JPY (87 million USD) for the 2003 fiscal year, down over 50 % from the budget of 23,2 billion JPY in fiscal year 2002.

Funds have been diverted instead to new PV R&D programmes focusing on field testing new technologies and developing systems for accelerated dissemination. There is also a significant – 3 billion JPY (25 million USD) – increase in the budget request for centralised grid-connected demonstration systems.

Contact:

• Osamu Ikki
  Fax: +81 (0)3 3553 8954

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