JAPANESE SUN 2012

Japan PV Market: 2012 – the year of make or break
Junko Movelian, 24 February 2012 (PV Tech)

"In spite of the devastating disasters which struck Japan in March 2011, the PV market continued growing and exceeded the 1-GW mark in 2011. The market growth – 30% - was far less than in 2009 and 2010, when it exceeded 100%. China was twice as big as Japan in 2011…This year, Japan [embarked] on a road to higher growth, by finally implementing a true FIT…and by diversifying its market beyond the residential segment.

"The domestic PV market was originally…[created] in the early 1970s…[by] the Residential PV System Dissemination Program…[which] funded total installations of over 930MW [between 1994 and 2005]…[and] Japan dominated the world PV market in…both production and installation…After 12 years [it was discontinued because] the federal government thought the PV market was self-sufficient…[but] Germany and several other countries moved ahead with national FIT policies…The [subsequent Japanese] market decline was due…to lack of incentives…[and] Japanese module makers [focus] on exporting to Europe, where profit margins were much higher…"

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"…To stop the market from further decline, the federal government re-launched the national residential incentive program in January 2009 and initiated a Net FIT policy]. Since then, the Japanese residential PV [which is an atypically large segment of Japan’s] market has been making a strong come back…The dominance of the residential sector remains strong, accounting for 86% of the total market in 2011…The residential segment will continue to dominate domestic PV demand, though its share will fall gradually as the non-residential segment starts to take-off with a new FIT [passed in August 2011] that will start in July 2012…

"Until 2008, the Japanese PV market was fully supplied by domestic module markers including Sharp, Kyocera, Panasonic (formerly Sanyo), and Mitsubishi Electric. China’s Suntech [and more than 30 non-Japanese module makers] entered Japan when the residential program was re-launched…As the domestic market started growing again, imported modules have accounted for significant shares of the market, with close to 20% of the total module supply for 2011…Some non-Japanese module makers have tied up with well-known retailers or distributors to take advantage of their partners’ brand name and recognition in Japan…"