Renewable Alert Letter 28

1. FIT ID Succession under New Regulations

Amendments to Japan's FIT Act went into force on April 1, 2017. Among the related systems and procedures being overhauled, this Alert Letter focuses on a number of points related to procedures for change of operator that only required submission of a minor change notice previously.

1. Renewable energy projects are usually sold and acquired through 1) acquisition by a new operator of the equity interests in a project SPC from the current operator, or 2) succession of project related rights from a project SPC owned by the current operator to a new operator's SPC. Since there is no change in the FIT ID holder in the first method, just as under the old law, the project only needs to submit notice of minor changes (ex post facto notice) to representative, address or other matters as necessary. Since there is a change to the FIT ID holder in the second method, however, under the new regulations, a project must apply in advance