The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has released the latest statistics on agrivoltaics/solar sharing in Japan, as of the end of March 2020.
The total number of installations in Japan was 2,653, an increase of 661 over the past year. Since the area is 181.6 ha, it is estimated that about 200 MW of agrivoltaics has been installed. The total amount of power generation equipment is about 800MW.
The number of cases introduced in one year reached a record high, but the rate of increase by prefecture varied greatly.
The following table shows the number of solar sharing installations by prefecture according to the MAFF Japan.
In terms of geographical distribution, there is a clear difference between east and west, with the eastern part of Japan, especially the Kanto region, being the most popular. On the other hand, in the Hokuriku region, Kansai region, and Kyushu region, the introduction is not so advanced.
This is presumably due to differences in values about agriculture, the influence of local governments' agricultural policies, sunshine hours, and other factors.
In addition, the Kyushu region, where the introduction of solar power generation was flourishing when the FIT was first introduced, is also thought to have been adversely affected by the curtailment of solar power output by Kyushu Electric Power.
In some areas, such as Miyagi and Tochigi prefectures, we have seen a rapid increase in the number of installations, but this is likely due to the fact that certain businesses are focusing on solar sharing for development.
In the future, we will further investigate the trends in each region to clarify the actual situation.
