Japan allocates 268.7MW in eleventh solar auction, lowest bid comes in at $0.078/kWh

Japan’s Green Investment Promotion Organization has released the final results of the latest auction for solar energy projects with a power rating of more than 250kW.

According to the government-run agency, 273 PV projects with a combined capacity of 268.7MW we selected through the procurement exercise, which was the eleventh of the country’s auction schemes for utility scale solar and will be the last exercise awarding fixed tariffs. Starting from the next auction, developers will be awarded feed-in premium tariffs.

The lowest bid offered in the auction was ¥8.99/kWh ($0.078) and the average, offered final price was ¥9.99. The ceiling price had been set at ¥10.25/kWh.

The Japanese authorities had accepted to review 345 project proposals with a combined capacity of 278.5MW.

The agency stressed that this is the first time that the minimum price crossed the ¥9 threshold. Total solar capacity, however, was lower than in the tenth auction, in which about 340MW was allocated and the lowest bid reached ¥10.23/kWh.

In 2021, the Japanese government allocated a total of 675MW of PV capacity across three different auctions. In the previous auctions, it allocated 942MW.

The main issues solar developers have to address in Japan are land availability – in part due to restrictions on the use of abandoned agricultural sites – and grid constraints.