Page 217 - Applied Photovoltaics

2. Sacramento—A 200 kW p PV array was installed at the Sacramento
Municipal Utility District’s Hedge Substation during 1993, at an estimated
price (in 1993) of US$7.70/W p (Solar Flare, 1993).
More recently, incentive programs were instrumental in the installation of 80 MW of
grid-connected PV in the USA in 2005 (Solarbuzz, 2006). Twenty-three percent of
the total market was new installed PV generating capacity on flat, commercial roofs
and large commercial projects overall accounted for 33% of the country’s total. A
database of US state and federal incentives for renewable energy is maintained by the
Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC, 2004).
Green pricing schemes, in which consumers and businesses elect to pay a premium
for electricity generated from renewable energy, have been an effective market driver
in the USA. Sales through such schemes increased 30% during 2003 (Schmitz et al.,
2004). The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the National Renewable
Energy Laboratory have studied the effectiveness of different marketing aspects of
the US schemes (Wiser, 2004). Green pricing programs prompted the development of
290 MW of renewable energy generation capacity up to the end of 2002 and another
140 MW was expected by the end of 2003.

10.7.2 Japan
Government-supported programs in Japan have brought that country to its current
position of dominance as both manufacturer of and market for photovoltaics. Since
the ‘Sunshine Project’ commenced in 1974, the Japanese have moved rapidly from
R&D to widespread PV application. The emphasis has been on utility-connected
systems, particularly residential rooftop systems, which take advantage of the high
level of grid connection and minimise land use (Kurokawa, 1993). Net metering,
under which utilities buy excess power at retail rates, was introduced in 1992 (Sawin,
2004).

The 1994 residential ‘Solar Roofs’ program has been a major driving force, with
150,000 approvals by March 2004 for subsidised residential rooftop systems, with
average size 3.7 kW p (Hirshman, 2004a). Over the lifetime of the program, the rebate
has been progressively decreased from 50% in 1994 to 12% in 2002, but buyers have
been compensated by falling prices. A total of 420 MW p of PV was installed between
1994 and 2002 and total installed capacity has increased by an average of more than
42% per year since 1992 (Sawin, 2004). Subsidies are gradually being replaced by
mandatory renewable energy targets and by ‘green power’ schemes, although many
local governments now offer PV incentives. Japan has now embarked on another
30 year program, with a target of 4.8 GW p installed by 2010 and 100 GW p installed
by 2030 (Ikki & Ohigashi, 2004). The latter is expected to be equivalent to 10% of
Japanese electricity use, and is accompanied by cost targets of 7 ¥/kWh, compared
with 50 ¥/kWh in 2003 (Goto et al., 2004).

10.7.3 Europe
Europe is the second-ranking PV market powerhouse after Japan, experiencing
explosive growth in production and usage rates over the decade 1993–2003. The
INTUSER Consortium (2003) listed incentive and support schemes for investment
and production in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UK.

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