Comparing Photovoltaic (PV) Costs and Deployment Drivers in the Japanese and U.S. Residential and Commercial Markets

Technical Report · Tue Apr 19 00:00:00 EDT 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1248076· OSTI ID:1248076

Friedman, B. ^[1]; Margolis, R. ^[1]; Seel, J. ^[2]

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1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Japan has re-emerged in 2013 as one of the world's fastest-growing and largest photovoltaic (PV) markets (Renewable Energy World 2013). Year-over-year growth in Japanese installed capacity in the first half of 2013 was about 270%. Japan's PV market was on pace to triple in 2013 compared with 2012, with approximately 2.7 GW installed during the first half of 2013 (compared to about 1.6 GW in the United States). This places Japan's market among the world's largest PV markets, along with China, Germany, and the United States. This report explores details of the rapidly changing Japanese market, and similarities and differences between the Japanese and U.S. markets. We collected data from a diverse group of Japanese PV installers, and we gathered additional Japanese and U.S. data from published sources as well as internal analyses.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1248076
• Report Number(s): NREL/TP-6A20-60360
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
Japan
Japanese photovoltaic markets
Japan PV market
Japanese PV costs
balance of systems (BOS)
soft costs
customer acquisition costs
permitting
interconnection
inspection
system design costs
installation labor costs
Japan residential PV market
Japan commercial PV market