01-06-2015, 05:49 AM
After spending almost $30 billion on solar energy in a single year and installing as many panels as exist in the whole of Spain, Japan is preparing to ratchet back its boom in photovoltaic power.
Solar’s $30 Billion Splurge Proves Too Much for Japan - Bloomberg
According to METI, developers installed nearly 10 gigawatts of renewable generating capacity through the end of April 2014, including 9.6 gigawatts of photovoltaics. (The nuclear reactors at Fukushima Daiichi had 4.7 gigawatts of capacity; overall, the country has around 290 gigawatts of installed electricity-generating capacity.) Three-quarters of the new solar capacity was in large-scale installations such as Mitsui’s.
Post-Fukushima, Japan Looks for a Solar Renewal | MIT Technology Review
Speed of PV's expansion placing strain on grid's capacity to absorb solar-powered electricity, prompting five utilities to restrict grid access of new solar farms.
Grid restrictions could slow Japan's solar revolution: pv-magazine
Tokyo Electric Power Co. is building a 100-kilometer-long electricity transmission line in central Japan as part of the country's efforts to upgrade its grid infrastructure in view of surging renewable power.
Tokyo Electric upgrading grid with 100-km-long transmission line : pv-magazine
An investigation has been launched by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) into why only one-in-ten approved PV projects in Japan has been built. Possible sanctions for deliberate delays could include withdrawal of FIT certification.
Unbuilt PV projects in Japan could have FIT certification withdrawn: pv-magazine
The newly installed utility-scale solar capacity around the world has surpassed 10,000 MW so far in 2014, marking the fifth consecutive record year, according to provisional figures published on Monday by Wiki-Solar. This trend will continue in 2015 as well, thanks to further progress in the US, China and India as well as solar capacity growth in Chile, Japan and South Africa
World installs over 10 GW of large solar capacity in 2014 - SeeNews Renewables
Yet, with curtailment at 40% on avg., and 80%-90% in some cases in China (curtailment is utilities refusal to buy a portion of the power produced by solar plants, thus limiting the transmission of “hard cash” to the project owners who are the counterparties to the ballooning accounts receivables/inventories on the balance sheets of the Chinese PV cell/module vendors), we see the ability of customers to pay back Chinese PV cell/module vendors when their receivables are due as extremely limited.
The worldwide solar market demand in 2014 was approximately at 44GW, even though the China market did not perform as well as expectations, due to the continuous growth in Japan and the U.S. market, the supply and demand remained stable.
TrendForce: 2015 Worldwide Solar Demand to Grow 16.5%, Emerging Markets Growth to Surpass 40%