According to a solar power promotion organization in Chiba, from April through October this year applications for government solar power subsidies hit 155,486, 51 percent higher than the 102,712 applications in the same period in 2010. Following planned blackouts in the Kanto region in March, Kyocera Corp. -- Japan's largest solar panel producer -- saw solar system inquiries balloon to some 10 times the usual number.
"There are likely many people who are now more conscious of disasters and have become interested in home electricity generation," suggests Kyocera's PR department.
In Hokuto, Yamanashi Prefecture, 53-year-old dentist Satoru Otomo has been using solar panels for 18 years. On the southern-facing part of the roof of his home that doubles as his dental practice, there are around 30 panels with a combined maximum output of six kilowatt-hours. Otomo began installing the panels in 1993. The previous year, the large electricity providers introduced a system to buy unused solar power from homes, and Otomo was the seventh person in the area serviced by the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) to join in. His power output started at just 0.7 kilowatt-hours and gradually increased as he added more panels.
On a hot summer afternoon in August this year, a display by a counter in Otomo's dental office showed generation of "3.5 kilowatt-hours" and consumption of "0.29 kilowatt-hours." His sales to TEPCO that month totaled around 25,000 yen, while he only drew about 5,000 yen's worth of electricity from the grid at night or other times he couldn't make his own power, spelling a tidy profit of 20,000 yen.
Solar systems generate less power in winter because the days are shorter, but even so Otomo's system fed around 200,000 yen in electricity to the grid over 2010, with a profit of around 100,000 yen. He also saves the electricity costs he paid before the installation. One caveat is that Hokuto is sunnier than most any other place in the country, ranking first in 2008 with 2,552 hours of sunlight.
Installation cost around 4.5 million yen, with about 500,000 yen of that covered by government subsidies. "I think I made the installation costs back one or two years ago," says Otomo.
These days, home solar panels are cheaper than they were when Otomo first bought his. According to Kyocera, it generally costs about 600,000 yen for each kilowatt-hour's worth of power production. Using typical panels, it takes about 6.5 square meters of space to generate a maximum of one kilowatt-hour. For a house with around 100 square meters of roof space, seven kilowatts-hours' worth of panels could be installed on the southern-facing half.
The government provides 48,000 yen in installation subsidies per kilowatt-hour up to 10 kilowatts, and many municipalities also have subsidy systems. Tokyo, for example, gives 100,000 yen for each kilowatt-hour of capacity. These local and national government subsidies can be used at the same time.
Ken Tsuzuku of the NGO PV Owner Network estimates that power companies currently pay about 42 yen for every kilowatt-hour under 10 kilowatts. To cover the around 4,000 kilowatts used per year by the average home, around 4 kilowatt-hours of solar generation are needed. Counting in subsidies, it would cost around 2 million yen to set up such a system. Considering savings on energy bills and profits from electricity sold, Tsuzuku predicts "the installation costs would probably be covered after 12 to 15 years."
Source: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20111120p2a00m0na005000c.html
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