Japanese firms back out of 1.8 GW of solar projects

Sep 11, 2014 - Solar developers in Japan have scrapped 1,820 MW of photovoltaic (PV) schemes amid an ongoing government investigation into the project development process, according to data by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).

Developers have abandoned 647 of solar projects permitted in the fiscal year ended March 2013, Yoichi Kimura from METI, who is responsible for renewable energy projects, said at a taskforce meeting on Wednesday as cited by news agency Bloomberg. The cancelled project capacity represents nearly 10% of the total non-residential solar permits in Japan for the fiscal 2012/13.

Under a recently introduced Japanese law, effective April 1, solar project developers have six months to secure land and equipment after receiving a feed-in tariff (FiT) licence. The measure aims to ensure that companies do not put off projects in a bid to take advantage of the falling prices of photovoltaic (PV) modules. METI will now investigate 351 of solar projects of a combined 2,700 MW, which received their FiT licences in fiscal 2012/13 but are not compliant with the new regulations, Kimura has said.

Japan aims to install 28,000 MW of solar capacity by 2020 as part of its effort to promote the use of renewable energy sources.

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