Tokyo leads by example: An obligation for solar PV-rooftop installations on all new homes
The Tokyo Metropolis is home to more than 38 million inhabitants. On the 15th of December 2022, its government introduced legislation to make it obligatory that all new homes be fitted with photovoltaic panels on their rooftops as of 2025 in ‘a bid to reduce carbon emissions from the household sector’.?More precisely, this will apply to buildings with a total floor space of less than 2,000 square meters and be accompanied by subsidies towards initial CAPEX and to leasing firms to reduce the burden on the actual home buyers. The press release estimated that a four-kilowatt installation could be purchased for approximately $7,200 USD and this expenditure recovered in around six years by revenues derived from electricity sales and government subsidies. A specific budget of some 116.2 billion yen ($8.8 bn USD) was set aside for this program.?
If private sector investors and solar developers were invited to participate, the number of rooftop-PV installations could potentially be more than doubled for the same level of government expenditure. In Tokyo and other cities around the world, numerous commercial models already exist that are based upon the rental of rooftops in the telecommunications industry. Similar rooftop rentals may provide a useful means to assist home buyers with their debt repayments. This would also facilitate better management of the combined solar assets by solar developers and Operations & Management professionals, i.e. as opposed to a multitude of different PV management systems of varying degrees of efficacity. Internationally, such initiatives in the solar sector will meet with more and more approval and interest from sector financiers.
Britain and number of other countries are currently considering similar measures. Here, due reflection should also be given over to:
1)?????Greater participation from sector professionals (solar developer and financiers, as above)
2)?????Improved program access for young new home buyers, particularly in zones of exceptionally-high purchase prices, as commonly found in many of the world’s larger cities
3)?????Measures to accelerate program scaling/penetration via specific financial incentives for those renting one or many new builds
4)?????Dedicated Public Private Partnerships with a nation’s larger home builders as seen for numerous other high-cost public infrastructure projects, e.g. transport, energy and communication networks
5)?????Such important levels of Public Sector investment needs to be aligned with effective management infrastructure (software, telecommunications, data storage and back-up) to ensure that Distributed Solar Energy Generation is properly managed to maximise energy production & environmental benefit for many decades to come. Ideally, this should involve performance monitoring at the level of individual solar panels via the Internet of Things (IoT, cf. Ref 1).
6)?????Appropriate building regulations being put in place so as NOT to exacerbate the associated PV-rooftop fire risk (Ref 2).
7)?????Participation of architects to design appropriately-orientated roof space for energy productivity that maximises cost-benefit for this power generator, scalable ad infinitum for generations to come.?
8)?????The impact of sporadic power input to national grids and the desirability of these domestic solar systems being systematically linked to appropriately-sized and locally-located energy storage systems (additional costs)
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9)?????A means to maximisation energy sale price via appropriately-structured spot markets.
Figure: New home rooftop-PV installations situated on the outskirts of Tokyo
To conclude, one should note that:
“Unlike land availability for large-scale ground-mounted solar farms in many parts of the world, domestic rooftops will remain a plentiful substrate for the installation of solar infrastructure well into the future”.
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