Japan's solar market may face shortage of photovoltaic inverters

Thanks to the high on-grid tariffs, many solar companies are very optimistic about the development prospects of the Japanese market. However, insiders pointed out that the vast majority of inverters that have been certified by the Japan Institute of Electrical and Safety Research (JET) are Japanese companies, meaning that the supply of inverters will be limited, and there may be a shortage of inverters.

Since the Japanese government introduced an attractive 42-kilo/kWh feed-in tariff, global solar companies have turned their attention to the Japanese market. However, Japanese consumers tend to use local brands. Therefore, many international solar energy companies believe that the competition in the roof photovoltaic system market is greater than the large-scale photovoltaic power plant projects.

In addition, according to industry sources, ground and rooftop PV system inverters need to obtain JET certification, and at present, the vast majority of JET standard certification is Japanese companies.

In recent years, Japanese solar companies have been lacking in competitiveness due to higher production costs. These companies did not expand their production capacity. With the rapid growth in installed capacity, the solar energy market in Japan is likely to have an inverter shortage.