Japan Solar Shipments May Jump 10-Fold, Industry Group Says - Bloomberg

Japanese domestic shipments of solar panels may increase by as much as 10 times in “a fairly short period” after the government approved renewable energy subsidies, a solar industry group’s chairman said.

“Legislation passed today will secure purchase of power generated by solar panels for a long time period,” Mikio Katayama, chairman of the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association, told reporters in Tokyo today. “That will help a rapid expansion of industry-use and utility-use solar systems.”

The legislation allows for a “feed-in tariff” or incentives that guarantee above-market rates for producers of wind, solar and geothermal energy. The subsidies are part of government efforts to cut Japan’s reliance on atomic energy after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami led to radiation leaks from a nuclear power plant.

Domestic solar battery shipments are about 1 gigawatt a year in Japan, compared with 8 gigawatts in Germany, said Katayama, who is also the president of Sharp Corp., Japan’s biggest maker of photovoltaic cells.

Panel shipments gained 31 percent from a year earlier to 258.6 megawatts in the three months ended June, according to the association. Residential-use systems accounted for about 87 percent of the shipments during the quarter.

When implemented in Germany and Spain, feed-in tariffs boosted installations of solar panels.

Renewable energy, including solar accounted for 2.9 percent of Japan’s power generation in 2010, compared with 15 percent in Germany, according to the International Energy Agency.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mariko Yasu in Tokyo at myasu@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net.

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Shipments of beef cattle from Miyagi are resumed

SENDAI — Farms resumed Tuesday shipping beef cattle raised in Miyagi Prefecture after the central government lifted a ban late last week.

Off to market: A farmer leads a cow from a barn in Kurihara, Miyagi Prefecture, on Tuesday. KYODO

Miyagi beef had previously tested positive for high levels of radioactive substances following the triple meltdowns at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

Beef processed from cattle shipped from Miyagi Prefecture will be auctioned off Friday morning and sold to consumers and dealers if its safety is confirmed by private-sector laboratories, which will check for radioactive contamination.

The Miyagi government said 636 cattle farms in the prefecture that didn't use tainted rice straw as feed were the first to get the green light to ship their cows.

Farms will be allowed to ship one cow per day for the time being. The prefecture said about 100 cows a day will be sent to meat centers in the cities of Sendai and Tome.

The laboratories will check 1 kg of beef per cow for contamination. The beef can be marketed if the amount of radioactive cesium detected is 50 becquerels or lower per kilogram.

On July 28, the central government instructed Miyagi to halt cattle shipments but lifted the ban Friday.

The government instructed the Miyagi, Fukushima, Iwate and Tochigi prefectural governments between July and early August to ban cattle shipments. Miyagi was the first to be allowed to resume shipments.

The central government decided Friday to keep in place Fukushima's ban after beef contaminated with excessive levels of radioactive cesium was newly detected.

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