History of Photovoltaic Industry Development in Japan

Abstract

Japanese Government started the “Sun Shine Project” in 1974, just after first oil crisis, and it has been promoting research and development of new energy sources since that time. Among the various new energies, photovoltaic (PV) power generation systems have shown remarkable promise. Nearly 2521MW of photovoltaic products were shipped worldwide in 2006. At the end of the year 2005, Japan’s cumulative capacity amounted to 1422MW, accounting for about 38 % of the 3700 MW total cumulative capacity of 20 member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA). This is due to research and development carried out in close cooperation among industry, government, and academia, national measures and policies necessary for promotion of its widespread use, strenuous investment funding efforts and human resources from the industrial world.

The key word for PV diffusion will be the “Social Infrastructure and Will” based on the Global Environment. This paper describes present and future prospect of Japanese photovoltaic.