but interesting to get more local and detailed information. i’m definitely curious to hear more about it and see how it grows.

On my once-a-week commute between Osaka and Kobe, the train passes through a veritable sea of rooftops that are perfectly positioned for solar installations. These include both residential and commercial buildings, mostly small factories and warehouses with large, flat roofs. But so far only a depressingly small number of them have panels (although there are a couple of large commercial installations and one or two residential communities that have significant coverage). It doesn’t seem to me like there’s been any appreciable uptake in the last year either.

Last summer this area was subjected to scheduled rolling blackouts, and many buildings are still have strict energy-saving routines in effect. Another year or two of that and I’m sure demand will really soar, although the new government has been talking about restarting a more of the nuclear plants to take up the slack.

In any case, I’m looking forward to the progress reports when the 1-year anniversary of the FIT comes around. In spite of my limited local observations, I have a feeling that its going to look pretty good.