Japan Concludes 17th Solar Energy Auction

• Japan has awarded 69 MW solar PV capacity in its 17th FIT solar auction  
• The lowest winning bid was determined as JPY 8.95/kWh as against a ceiling of JPY 9.43/kWh  
• The 18th solar auction will be held later this year with 105 MW capacity on offer  

The 17th solar auction in Japan, with 110 MW on offer for feed-in-tariff (FIT), was undersubscribed with the Organization for Cross-regional Coordination of Transmission Operators (OCCTO) awarding 69 MW in this round.  

The total number of winning bids selected was 55 with the lowest and highest tariffs determined as JPY 8.95 ($0.061)/kWh and JPY 9.43 ($0.065)/kWh, respectively. The average weighted winning bid was JPY 9.30 ($0.063)/kWh as against the ceiling tariff of JPY 9.43/kWh.  

Bids were made for project sizes of between 250 kW to 500 kW, and for more than 500 kW categories in the 2nd solar auction of 2023, out of the 3 OCCTO conducts annually.   

The previous round, the 16th solar auction with 105 MW on offer, was oversubscribed as OCCTO awarded 119.7 MW capacity (see High Demand In 16th Japanese Solar Auction).   

The list of winning projects is available on the government's website. OCCTO has also announced that the 18th solar auction, which will be the 3rd for this year, will offer 105 MW capacity.