The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has announced new feed-in-tariff (FIT) rates for solar installations in residential, and commercial and industrial (C&I) segments for the years 2024 and 2025.
For system sizes of less than 10 kW in the residential segment, the 2023 FIT of JPY 16.0 ($0.11)/kWh will continue in 2024, but drop to JPY 15.0 ($0.099)/kWh in 2025.
For ground mounted commercial solar installations of between 10 kW and 50 kW, the JPY 10.0 ($0.066)/kWh will sustain till 2025. Systems of over 50 kW but not eligible for bidding in this segment will get a lowered FIT of JPY 9.2 ($0.061)/kWh in 2024, and JPY 8.9 ($0.059)/kWh in 2025. In 2023, it was JPY 9.5 ($0.063)/kWh.
FITs for rooftop commercial solar power generation systems of 10 kW to 50 kW, and those above 50 kW will continue to get JPY 12.0 ($0.079)/kWh in 2024, but these will be lowered to JPY 11.5 ($0.076)/kWh in 2025.
METI plans to determine the purchase price of commercial solar power plants of 250 kW or above through competitive bidding. It will conduct 4 bidding rounds in 2024 with a ceiling tariff of JPY 9.20 ($0.061)/kWh, JPY 9.13 ($0.060)/kWh, JPY 9.05 ($0.060) and JPY 8.98 ($0.059)/kWh, respectively. Commercial rooftop solar installations will be exempt from bidding.
Recently, the country also declared the results of its 19th solar auction that was oversubscribed. Against the 134.1 MW on offer, the Green Investment Promotion Organization of Japan or OCCTO received 127 bids with a combined 311.756 MW capacity.
It finally selected 29 bids to award 134.102 MW with the lowest bid of JPY 0.0/kWh, which was offered by FS Japan Project41 for a 19.9 MW project. The highest winning bid was JPY 6.98 ($0.046)/kWh. The weighted average winning bid was JPY 5.11 ($0.034)/kWh.
Bids in this round were capped at JPY 9.28 ($0.061)/kWh. This was the country's 4th solar auction of 2023 (see Japan Concludes 18th Solar PV Energy Auction).
The list of winners and the winning projects is available on the organization's website.