Japan’s Largest Show for the PV Industry
PV EXPO 2017
Dates: March 1st-3rd, 2017
Sungold Booth No: East Hall 6, E53-40
The latest technologies, materials, manufacturing technologies, and solar cell/module will be exhibited from across the globe.
Photo Voltaic Expo is a 3 day event being held from 1st March to the 3rd March 2017 at the Tokyo Big Sight in Tokyo, Japan. This event showcases products like Silicon Ingot, Wafer ・Module Substrates Targets Plastics Filling, Sealing Materials Frame Materials Other Devices/Materials, Cell Measurement Machines Thickness Gauging Machines Ammeters, Voltmeters, Flowmeters Spectral Sensitivity Measurement Machines Appearance Inspection Equipment Other Evaluation, Testing, Analysis Equipment etc. in the Power & Renewable Energy industry.
First day traffic on the show floor was noticeably slower than in previous years as the industry seemingly reacted to repeated warnings of a market contraction in Japan in 2017. However, optimism was generally in plentiful supply, with those involved in home storage, high efficiency technologies and upstream innovation bullish about the opportunities that still abound in the Japanese solar sector.
The Japanese PV market’s switch from a feed-in tariff (FiT) driven, mostly utility-scale phenomenon to one based on rooftops and self-consumption.
While utility-scale PV (known as ‘mega solar’) in Japan is set to diminish in market size, with the government now confirming the introduction of annual 500MW tenders, each of the three big names(Panasonic, Toshiba and Sharp) was preparing to see the already strong residential market take off further and commercial PV continue to grow. The Japanese government has confirmed that FiT prices will fall to ¥21 (US$0.18)/kW this year with further drops expected next year, meaning that from then it will be as economical to self-consume onsite generated power as to sell it back to power companies.
Panasonic’s booth included its latest high-efficiency “HIT”branded modules for the residential market boasting conversion efficiencies as high as 19.3%. They are also branded ‘P&S’ , or ‘push and slide’, which means the modules can be easily snapped into place on rooftop installations.
While residential rooftop PV is still being installed on a feed-in tariff basis for the most part in Japan, Panasonic was marketing inverter solutions for households that are ‘battery-ready’, so that when economics dictate, system owners will be able to simply add lithium-ion batteries to their existing PV systems. Panasonic as well as Sharp was also selling so-called ‘hybrid’ inverters, which incorporate solar PV inverters and battery inverters into one package.
Japan has introduced new Zero Energy House (ZEH) and Zero Energy Building (ZEB) standards. There is a target that by that year 50% of new dwellings and new commercial buildings will be net zero energy, which still represents a sizeable opportunity in a country which builds close to one million new houses a year.
In addition to the big three profiled, many companies were presenting kits and solutions for ZEH, incorporating heating and insulation, PV and energy storage. Perhaps the most sophisticated looking was Sharp’s (pictured). Companies like Panasonic, Sharp and Toshiba, which are involved in a number of different business areas related to electronics already have many of the necessary technologies within their production and marketing capabilities and the focus on ZEH and ZEB seemed a natural fit.
(Source:PV-tech)
