Japan

Researchers working on inorganic perovskites at the Energy Materials and Surface Sciences Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) in Japan have found that doping with manganese can significantly improve the performance of wholly inorganic perovskite solar cells.

The group’s solar business incurred an operating lost in the last fiscal year, due to a write-down related to a long-term purchase contract for the supply of polysilicon.

Australia-based peer-to-peer (P2P) energy pioneer Power Ledger will partner with Japanese utility Kansai Electric Power Company (KEPCO) to trial its blockchain-enabled platform. The limited trial will first involve only 10 homes in Osaka, however, Power Ledger says that Japan is an excellent fit for P2P energy trading.

Independent power producer, Sonnedix has announced start of operations for the 46.8 MW Suwa solar PV plant, located on a former golf course in Nagano prefecture, Japan. The project is the first to be completed, of several investments made by Sonnedix in the Japanese market.

Korea is making good on an earlier promise, and now Japan has joined in. Both nations demand that the Trump Administration reverse the tariffs, or suffer an equivalent volume of retaliatory tariffs.

A joint venture between Kyocera Corporation and Tokyo Century Corporation has completed a 13.7 MW floating solar PV plant in Japan.

Japanese electronics giant, Sharp has announced the achievement of a 25.09% conversion efficiency, from a cell utilizing both heterojunction (HJT) and back contact technology. The measurement has been validated by Japan Electrical Safety & Environment Technology Laboratories (JET).

The research team believes that the new technology may resolve technical problems and drastically reduce the manufacturing cost of the lift-off process in the production of thin film monocrystalline solar cells.

Solar in Japan: As Japan continues to wean itself off nuclear power, solar PV has assumed a vital role in aiding the transition to renewable energy. In Fukushima, a series of solar plants have already been installed, but one new addition to the region – a module fab – poses an altogether different set of challenges and opportunities, as pv magazine’s managing editor Ian Clover found out.

The Chinese power electronics company will ship its turnkey energy systems comprising storage inverters, NCM lithium batteries and an energy management system to a 30 MWh storage project being built in Hokkaido, Japan.