The Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE) of Japan recently presents a revised draft for Feed-in Tariff (FIT) scheme and proposes new power output solutions, aiming to provide the maximum amount of renewable energy installation. First, it lists out some revisions for systems:
1. Make amendment on facility coverage to control the output
2. Change the current plan for limiting renewable electricity output without compensation to the operators of renewable energy power generation facilities (so-called "30-days rule") from a daily basis to an hourly basis
3. Renewable energy generation facility operators must build remote output control systems
4. Increase the utility capacity to connect renewable energy power generation facilities to the grid, through utilizing the Specified Electricity Utility System
Some other things will be re-examined as well, including measures to be implemented by each utility regarding the issue of suspending applications and special measures for Fukushima, and so on.
ANRE will also make revision of the current operation system of the feed-in tariff scheme. Firstly is to make solar purchase price more reasonable. Secondly is to avoid companies from applying for renewable energy provision contracts in order to secure their right to meet energy grid quotas without concrete business plans. Lastly, it is to ensure the site location of the facility to prevent misunderstandings and conflicts to local communities.
All of the above measures are created by Japan in the hope of a more balanced system for renewable energy. It’s expected that Japan’s new renewable energy policies will impact PV installation. What we can foresee at this point is that the number of large-scale ground-mounted PV plants will be reduced, while FIT will be lowered at the same time. ANRE is still seeking public opinions for the revision, according to local reports.
This week’s spot market prices
Polysilicon from China reduced significantly in January, thus polysilicon spot prices dropped 0.51% to US$19.4/kg. Super high-efficiency multi-si wafer prices slightly declined to US$0.942/piece due to the weaker downstream demand. Although first-tier mono-si wafer manufacturers could stick to US$1.135/piece, prices for second-tier manufacturers dropped followed weaker demand. This week’s multi-si cell prices decreased 0.31% to US$0.32/w because of the weaker demand caused by the US-China trade war. The average multi-si cell prices in China reached US$0.314/W. The depreciated exchange rates in Europe/Japan and weaker demand after February caused 250w multi-si module prices dropped 0.17% to US$0.572/w.
