Japan Awards 369 MW Under 6th Solar Auction

The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has selected 368.8 MW solar power capacity under the country’s 6^th solar auction wherein it sought proposals from projects with power generation capacity of 250 kW and above.

Under the call, METI had been wanting to procure 750 MW in total, capping the tariffs at JPY 12.00 ($0.12) per kWh. In response it received bids totaling 526.5 MW, however it awarded 368.8 MW in all selecting 254 as successful bids. In these auctions, winning tariffs came down considerably from the last auction round to JPY 10.00 ($0.096) kWh as the lowest winning tariff, compared to JPY 10.99 per kWh in the 5^th auction round (see Japan Awards 40 MW Capacity In Fifth Solar Auction). The weighted average winning bid was determined at JPY 11.48 ($0.11) per kWh compared to JPY 12.57 per kWh previously.

The lowest winning bid was offered and won by AEC Co., Ltd. for a 544.5 kW project.

Solar cell and module producer Canadian Solar said 2 of its projects in Japan have been selected under the 6^th solar auction. These 2 projects represent a combined capacity of 22 MW and are located in the prefectures of Gunma and Ibaraki. For both these projects, it will deploy its high efficiency modules. It expects the projects to start commercial operations by 2025 when these will sell power to Tokyo Electric Power Company under 20-year power purchase agreements for JPY 11.99 ($0.114) per kWh.

Japan has been holding solar auctions since November 2017 as it aims to transition away from its feed-in tariff scheme. The response has not been overwhelming so far, primarily because there was a pipeline of approved high feed-in tariff projects. Nonetheless, going forward the focus of the government will be on solar in its recently announced bid to go carbon neutral by 2050 (see Japan Pledges Carbon Neutral Target By 2050).