Japan's conundrum of peak power prices may begin to ease as the country's solar-power expansion taps scorching summers to displace fossil fuels.
The resource-poor country, which has boosted solar capacity more than sevenfold since 2011, may follow a similar path as Germany, where electricity prices fell along with fossil fuel use during high consumption periods, according to Trevor Sikorski, an analyst at Energy Aspects Ltd. in London.
"Japanese power system is starting to mimic exactly what happened in the German power system following its burst of solar capacity development," Sikorski said. "The summer demand peaks start to disappear, as solar powered generation meets most of the air-cooling demand that the country needs."