On August 30, 2011, the Japanese parliament passed the FIT
Act. The FIT Act was designed to spur investment in, and
promote the use of, renewable energy by obligating electric
utilities to purchase power generated from renewable resources,
specifically from solar PV, wind, hydro (up to 30MW), geothermal
and biomass projects. Compared with feed-in tariff schemes in
Europe and elsewhere, the Japanese FIT price is high and the
current fixed-price 20-year power purchase term is particularly
long – an attractive combination for renewable energy
developers.
Since the FIT Act became effective in mid-2012, countless
developers and investors have come to Japan looking for
opportunities. Like the California gold rush of the mid-19th
century, this has become known as Japan's green rush. Solar PV
development has been especially active. The first half of 2013 saw
twice as much solar capacity installed in Japan as in all of 2012
and most analysts expect that these strong trends
