Aichi Prefecture to Utilize Green Power Certificates to Promote Residential Photovoltaic Generation

Aichi Prefecture announced on May 30, 2008, that it will launch a model project for fiscal 2008 in which the prefecture will purchase green power certificates in order to support the installation and operation of residential photovoltaic (PV) facilities as well as promote utilization of green power certificates. The prefecture will consign the work of recruiting residential facilities for the program and issuing the certificates to a non-profit organization, PV Owner Network Japan (PV-Net).

Under the project, PV-Net will purchase as green power the environmental value of electricity consumed by households with residential PV facilities for one year after the PV units are certified as green power generators, and supply the green power certificates to the prefecture. The environmental value of this green power will be purchased in units of 500 kilowatts-hour (kWh) per one kilowatt of PV power generation capacity; facility owners will be paid 20 yen (about 20 US cents) per kilowatt-hour, with an upper limit of 2,000 kWh for each facility. The prefecture expects to secure green power certificates equivalent to 75,000 kWh of electricity in fiscal 2008 and 225,000 kWh in fiscal 2009 by contracting with PV facilities certified in 2008.

Aichi prefecture has been subsidizing the installation of PV units on residential facilities since 2003, and as of December 2007 there were about 22,000 PV facilities within the prefecture, the largest number of any prefecture in Japan. Still, it has a long way to go to attain its initial target of 100,000 such facilities by the end of fiscal 2010.

The prefecture plans to utilize the green power certificates generated by the project at ecological events or environmental education facilities. The prefecture hopes that procuring the certificates from new PV facilities on residential facilities will raise the awareness of citizens and business organizations about the green power certification system, develop sources of energy with positive environmental value, improve the green power certification system for PV generation and further promote residential PV facilities.

http://www.pref.aichi.jp/global/en/index.html

Posted: 2008/08/08 07:09:36 AM