Via Peak Energy, we learn from TreeHugger that the Japanese government is offering new incentives for builders to include solar panels in new buildings.
New flexible CIGS (Copper Indium Gallium Selenide) photo voltaic cells from AIST demonstrate energy conversion efficiency of 17.7%. Supposedly, in low light and with light from a low angle such thin film photo voltaic laminates do better than amorphous silicon panels.
0 percent of newly-built homes will be equipped with solar power systems by 2030? Sounds good to me. Japan plans to provide a subsidy of about 200,000 yen (just under $2,000) to households that buy a solar power system to promote its use and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Nikkei. The subsidy represents 10 percent of the cost of a standard solar power system, which is about 2 million yen:
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry hopes the subsidy will help stimulate mass production of such solar power systems and lower costs. The subsidy payment could be introduced as early as the current fiscal year to end March 2009, it said. Home-use solar power systems in Japan now generate a combined total of 1.4 million kilowatts of electricity, the daily said.
In June, the government set a target of boosting solar power generation by 10 times from current levels by 2020 and 40 times by 2030. …
Last month, AIST announed its new flexible CIGS Photovoltaic Cell with an energy conversion efficiency of 17.7%, noting that the growing concerns about environmental problems and increasing crude oil prices has led to an increased interest in power generation using renewable energy such as photovoltaics and other new energy resources.
