Japan to Review Clean Energy Incentive Program After Solar Surge

(Bloomberg) — Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and
Industry will review the country’s incentive program for
promoting use of renewable energy to tackle issues such as
project delays and the dominance of solar power over other
energy sources.

The ministry will set up a taskforce to look at several
aspects of the incentive program, including the increase in fees
paid by consumers for renewable energy, Yasuhiro Matsuyama, the
official in charge of the program, said by phone Friday.

The taskforce meetings have yet to begin so other details
of the review haven’t been worked out, he said. Japan introduced
a renewable energy incentive program in July 2012 after the
Fukushima nuclear disaster, offering some of the highest rates
for solar-produced electricity in the world.

Japan convened a series of meetings of experts starting
last year to discuss clean energy policies. The review by the
ministry taskforce follows approval of a long-term energy mix
plan earlier this month that said renewable energy should make
up as much as 24 percent of power generation by 2030.

The country has approved 78,680 megawatts of clean energy
projects with solar accounting for 95 percent of the total as of
the end of February, according to trade ministry data.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Chisaki Watanabe in Tokyo at
cwatanabe5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
Peter Langan, Jason Rogers

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