Sekisui Home Ltd, sets goal for 10,000 solar-powered homes in 10 years.
In an interview in the Yomiuri Newspaper, Sekisui House, Ltd.’s President and CEO, Isami Wada, today announced that the 2010 target of residential homes equipped with the solar power generating systems has reached 10,000 homes in 2008 – about five times higher than the original 2010 goal.
In order to reduce green house gas emissions, the Japanese government has set assistance for residential homes, promoting the installation and use of solar power and fuel cell systems.
In 2008 Sekisui House sold approximately 200 homes equipped with solar power systems installed. From March of 2009, trade increased for the business section selling solar or fuel cell-equipped homes using the Ene-Farm system under the “GreenFirst” designation. Plans for the rest of 2009 include sales of over 6000 homes equipped with the solar or fuel cell systems. New residential construction is expected to account for one third of these sales. Within 10 years, Sekisui expects the number of these new homes to expand to 10,000 units.
President Wada explained that with the declining birthrate in Japan, combined with the general aging of society, Sekisui cannot rely on new construction alone, and also will strongly pursue retrofitting older homes with these systems. Combined with large scale purchasing of old homes, retrofitted with these systems, Sekisui also plans to strengthen its’ business by reselling the remodeled units.
President Wada went on to say that because of the aforementioned social trends, the usual cycle of homebuilding will come to an end. The new business plan is hoped to ameliorate the 7-fold reduction in new construction and it’s have related effects on prices and earnings.