by Chico Harlan, The Washington Post, June 4, 2013

TOKYO — Across Japan, technology firms and private investors are racing to install devices that until recently they had little interest in: solar panels. Massive solar parks are popping up by the dozen, and companies are mounting panels atop warehouse and factory rooftops as part of a rapid buildup that one developer likened to an “explosion.”

The boom is striking in part because of how simply it was sparked — by a little-noted government policy, implemented nearly a year ago, that suddenly guaranteed generous payments to anybody selling renewable energy, including solar power.

Because of that policy, known as a feed-in tariff, Japan has become one of the world’s fastest-growing users of solar energy, investors and analysts say, a shift that comes as this resource-poor country tries to find clean and homegrown alternatives to nuclear power. This year alone, Japan is forecast to install solar panels with the capacity of five to seven modern nuclear reactors.

Before the 2011 meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, Japan had all but neglected renewable forms of energy, instead emphasizing atomic power, which it hoped would provide half of the nation’s energy by 2030. But the accident at Fukushima forced the shuttering of the country’s 50 operable reactors, only two of which have been restarted. The remaining shutdowns could prove temporary, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledging restarts of reactors deemed safe. A majority of Japanese, though, remain opposed to atomic energy, and analysts say the solar takeoff highlights Japan’s appetite for other options.

There is a downside: Renewables are several times pricier than nuclear power or fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. The rising use of solar power means energy bills will spike, potentially complicating Abe’s plan to jump-start Japan’s long-foundering economy.

Most consumers think that sacrifice is worthwhile, and they say nuclear power has hidden cleanup and compensation costs that emerge only after an accident. Fossil fuels, meanwhile, release harmful greenhouse gases and must be imported from Australia, Russia, Indonesia and the Middle East. […]

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