Solar Power in Japan
Something that’s cool that I wanted to share with you is about solar power in Japan.
See, I wrote a book about how to learn Japanese the easy way. I also care about installing solar panels.
So I wanted to know how these two things could come together! Therefore, I decided to write about all the solar panels I’ve seen in Japan.
Mainly, I would see them on the long train rides, right next to rice fields in the Japanese countryside.
What? Japan has countryside? You bet they do!
That’s the weirdest thing to me to really realize. There’s still tons of land in Japan that is NOT Tokyo! Everyone talks about global overpopulation, but in reality, there’s tons of space left on this Earth! (More on that another time.)
Solar power in Japan has been expanding since the 90s. Being a huge country for manufacturing electronics, the country is a world-leading manufacturer of photovoltaic panels (PV) and also alarge installer of domestic PV systems with most of them being grid-tied systems.
Solar Power has become a major priority for the country after nuclear disasters caused a massive shift away from use of nuclear power. Particularly the Fukushima Daichii disaster when a Tsunami damaged a nuclear reactor on the Japanese Pacific coast.
In 2013 and 2014, Japan was the world’s biggest market for the growth of installing solar panels. It’s exciting!
Why Japan is going Solar?
Japan is a country without an abundance of remaining natural resources. What I mean is that Japan has plenty of resources, however its ability to generate power through domestic coal or domestic trees or other sources of biofuel or fossil fuels, is limited. Japan does not have as much vast flat agricultural land as other areas. Particularly because Japan is very mountainous.
Solar power is one of the most renewable forms of electricity, and Japan has realized that. Plus they are a top manufacturer of electronics. Making electronics is key to solar because of the fine detail required to create cost-efficient solar cells and build them into inexpensive PV modules.
Japan is also known as the land of the rising sun, which means they receive a lot of sunlight as it crests from the Pacific ocean. Japan is also concerned for their national security, which means producing more power from domestic solar sources is important to reduce the reliance on imported power.
How big is the solar industry in Japan?
Japan aims to generate 53 GIGAWATTS of solar power by 2030, and power 10% of the country by solar by 2050. You have to remember that Japan is a very modern country that has massive energy consumption needs.
Japan’s Government Solar Incentives
Japan announced a goal of having 70% of new homes being built with solar power, and spends over $100 million USD per year to encourage home solar power. The government has subsidies for installing solar power as well as a tariff that offers long term contracts to renewable solar energy producers.
These have a combined effect of greatly increasing the amount of solar power installed both commercially and in the residential sector in Japan.
Ryan organizes anime events and does solar in Davenport through Iowa Solar.