Sustainability Report - Bank Sarasin-Alpen

Solar Energy 2005
stock market. After Conergy made a strong debut this year, companies such as
Q-Cells, ErSol and others have followed suit.
Germany as a driving force for
achieving EU targets for
renewables
Very ambitious targets have been set in Germany for the growth of the PV market
over the longer term, both on the part of the government and the industry associations
(which are naturally more optimistic). Germany acts as a role model
for the achievement of the goals set by the EU for renewables in its White Book
in 1997: the percentage of renewables used is to be doubled from 6% to 12% by
2010 across the whole of Europe. To achieve the target in 2010, growth has to
continue at a rate of more than 30% p.a. This is an ambitious goal, and one that
requires other countries to expand their photovoltaics as significantly as Germany.
Japan
Solar energy as a constituent of
overriding energy targets
In Japan, incentives to promote photovoltaics are an integral part of national energy
policy. In sharp contrast to the US, the Kyoto protocol also plays a very important
role. The government is committed to achieving a 7% reduction in 1990
CO 2 emissions. Photovoltaics have been singled out as a means of achieving
this reduction. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) wants 10%
of energy requirements to be met by renewables by 2030, with half of this
(approx. 100 GW) coming from photovoltaics. A more concrete interim target of
4.8 GW installed PV capacity has been set for 2010.
Fig. 10: Short and mid-term market forecast for Japan
Japan 2000 -2010
Module production p.a. Production cap. at y/e Annual installed PV capacity
1000
900
800
700
600
[MWp]
500
400
300
200
100
0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Source: up to 2004 IEA-PVPS, from 2005 Sarasin
RPVD programme ends
in March 2006…
The successful Residential PV System Dissemination Programme (RPVDP) to
promote PV systems for private houses has made Japan a leader in PV in recent
years. Despite falling lower subsidies for each solar system installed (JPY 900/W
in 2003; JPY 450/W in 2004, JPY 20/W in 2004), Japan has found a good balance
between costs for individual consumers and state spending. Seemingly the
RPVD programme had already used up the entire subsidies available by the end
of September – well before its official end in March 2006. It’s not yet clear what
will come after that. At the same time there are a number of local programmes
whose future is also uncertain. Japanese utility companies have also announced
that they would only extend their voluntary Net-Metering System, which compen-
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