Japan

PV EXPO 2011

September 17th
Mar 2 2011 08:00
Mar 4 2011 20:00

The Fourth International PV Expo will be held at Tokyo's Big Sight Convention Center from 2 - 4 March 2011. Last year's event had over 80,000 attendees, and almost 600 exhibitors, while this year they project over 900 exhibitors and 135,000 attendees.

There will be six concurrent Exhibitions, including Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Systems, Smart Grid Technologies, and EcoHomes.

Toshiba enters domestic solar power market

March 2nd


Toshiba Corp., in collaboration with SunPowerCorp (US), will be selling monocrystal Silicon-type solar energy crystal modules for residential solar battery systems from 1 April 2010. Toshiba said that it decided to start the residential solar battery system to help promote their all-electric or smart-grid businesses. In the future, Toshiba plans to sell its solar battery systems with second-generation Li-ion batteries (SCiB) combined with “smart meters”. The residential solar battery systems that Toshiba plans to sell will have solar battery modules, power conditioners (power conversion efficiency of 94%), and color monitors, all supplied by out-sourced suppliers.

JPEA's 26th Solar Power Generation Systems Symposium

November 11th


Low-carbon steel-producing companies have joined a growing international trend of implementing and assisting the establishment of a system to regulate the buying and selling of surplus solar power from residential power generation systems, and establishing a domestic market to develop this on a large scale in Japan.

This is the 26th Symposium of the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association (JPEA), and it will provide a complete picture of the current and future state of solar power generation in Japan, as well as the present state of technical development, and business and government policy related to solar power.

Toshiba begins marketing fuel cells aimed at mobile phones.

October 23rd

On 22 October, Toshiba announced that the DynarioTM, a fuel cell for mobile phones, will go on sale from the 29th of the month. Limited to a first run of 3,000 units, advanced sales are now available on the Toshiba direct sales site “Shop1048”. The units are priced at 29,800 yen each (USD $325). At the same time, Toshiba is also selling additional fuel cartridges, with a 5-unit set selling for 3,150 yen (USD $34).

Builders provide big discounts for solar energy/co-generation homes.

August 10th


Residential homebuilders are providing discounts for homes equipped with solar power devices as competition increases. Led by major companies, like Sekisui House, and also mid-sized companies like Sanyo Homes, an offer of free installation of 3 Kilowatt power solar units is being made to homeowners until the end of August.

Green is good (in Japan)

August 10th

Whatever the merits or otherwise of the practical implementations of Japanese environmental awareness (e.g. my local neighborhood's definition of "burnable" trash, which includes plastic that produces noxious fumes when incinerated), anything with "eco" in its name or description immediately has a stronger sales position than anything without. Witness the "eco-point" system, whereby anyone trading in their old "clunker" air-conditioner, fridge or TV for a new "eco" model would collect "eco points". Sales of such items shot up and people happily collected their "eco points".

Toyota To Commercially Produce Fuel Cell Cars by 2015 says New President

August 9th

Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda said Wednesday the Japanese automaker plans to start commercial production of fuel-cell vehicles by 2015.

Toyota is "making great progress on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and hopes to make this technology available and affordable for customers within the next half dozen years," Toyoda told an auto industry seminar held in Traverse City, Michigan.

Japan Reduces Power Conversion Equipment Using SiC Diodes

August 9th

Japanese researchers at AIST and Toshiba have greatly reduced the power conversion equipment required by using higher frequency SiC diodes that operate at around 2khz. (Normal power inverters operate at 500Hz.) They have produced a prototype with a output of 300kVA. They also have enhanced the gate transistor that is normally part of a inverter.

Mitsubishi Attains 18% Efficiency With Poly Si Solar Cells

July 22nd

Mitsubishi Electric has announced that they are achieving 18% conversion efficiency with polycrystalline Si solar cells. These cells are 100μm thick. Apparently the cells are organized in a honeycomb texture that reduces the reflectance. It has been nearly a year since Mitsubishi announced a 17.4% efficiency, the solar moles have been busy.

Showa Denko Develops Cheap Platinum Alternative PEFC with High Efficiency

July 22nd

In what promises to be a significant advancement Showa Denko (SDK) and NEDO have announced the work of Professor Oota of Yokohama University who has apparently produced PEFC (Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell) without using the precious metal Platinum. Using Niobium and Titanium in combination with nitrogen oxides and carbon.


The production costs of these new types of Fuel Cell are $5 / Kilowatt. Approximately 1/20th of Platinum based PEFC.

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