Improved production methods set to pull PV power prices down
Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO) plans to reduce the cost of solar power generation to ¥23/kWh (¢21.9/kWh) by 2010. Over the next financial year NEDO aims to develop mass production technologies that will deliver some 100,000 kW of PV capacity over a three-year period. The group wants to reduce the cost of the high purity silicon required for PV cells and boost the conversion efficiency, producing modules for close to ¥100/W (¢95/W).
Currently, PV energy costs of the order of ¥45/kWh (¢42/kWh), double the cost of conventional generation, while NEDO’s plans will see this cost fall to the level more typical of domestic households.