Edano wants households to lend their roofs to solar drive

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A program to allow companies to install solar panels on the roofs of private homes will be introduced by the government before the onset of summer, industry ministery Yukio Edano said.

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By TORU NAKAGAWA/ Staff Writer
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Edano wants households to lend their roofs to solar drive
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A program to allow companies to install solar panels on the roofs of private homes will be introduced by the government before the onset of summer, industry ministery Yukio Edano said.

The idea is for households to lend their roof space in return for payment, while companies will provide the equipment necessary to generate power, Edano told The Asahi Shimbun. The firms will profit by selling the electricity onto the public grid under the new “feed-in tariff” law.

There are already systems that allow private households to install solar panels on their roofs and be paid for the electricity they pump back onto the grid. But the upfront cost to households of installing solar panels has limited their appeal.

“It will take time until it is widespread if households have to install panels themselves,” Edano said. “With the roof-lending, households earn money and power companies secure power stations.”

The roof-lending scheme is part of a government drive to encourage the growth of a solar energy industry and will coincide with the introduction in July of the “feed-in tariff” law, which will require utilities to purchase energy produced by solar power producing firms at fixed, above-market rates.

The lending system will be facilitated by regulations introduced under the renewable energy law. While lending out roof space is possible now, there is no regulatory framework for the transactions.

The government is looking to encourage such arrangements by overseeing the sector.

The existing purchase system only allows households to sell surplus electricity to companies after using generated energy at home. A family installing solar panels with a capacity of 3-4 kilowatts on a roof can expect to pay 2 million to 3 million yen ($26,000 to $39,000) in upfront costs for the equipment.

Recovering the initial cost can take 10 to 20 years. The roof-lending system would remove that capital cost from households.

While “feed-in tariff” programs already exist in Europe, they have tended to focus on large solar producers. The Japanese system will look to combine the financial muscle of businesses with very small-scale solar power production.

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