Angry Japanese utilities deny requests for more solar grid connections
While Japan may have added a tremendous amount of solar power to its grid in 2014, it has done so over the strenuous objections of the country's electric utilities. A recently released estimate said the country added eight gigawatts of photovoltaic solar last year, largely because of its feed-in tariff (FIT), which requires utilities to buy electricity from renewable energy producers.
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Tokyo Bay at sunset, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan. Credit: plusphoto/amanaimagesRF |
Japan has jumped headlong into solar power in particular since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster of March 2011. The country more than doubled its solar generating capacity in less than two years following the disaster.
Then, in 2012, the country set up the FIT, said to be one of the steepest in the world, which resulted in more than a million applications -- most of them for solar installations. The majority of Japan's solar is produced at the residential level rather than by utilities or large-scale commercial projects.
The sticking point for the country's utilities, and why they began to refuse to add more solar connections to the electric grid, is they contend all that solar has created an oversupply in some parts of the country and is causing stress that could affect grid reliability.
As of October 2014, five utilities said they would not accept more renewable energy applications until they could upgrade their grids to handle the influx and avoid blackouts. Some observers have argued that the utilities should simply invest in energy storage and other related technologies rather than refuse to accept applications for grid connections. Others have said the utilities are afraid that so much renewable energy will jeopardize their business models.
The Japanese government established a working group to address the problems associated with the overwhelming growth of solar in October, and in mid-December the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE) released the working group's report. A statement from the agency said it will call for public comment on the recommended revisions.
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