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Japan to subsidize solar equipment home use: report
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan plans to provide a subsidy of about 200,000 yen ($1,887) to households that buy a solar power system to promote its use and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Nikkei business daily said on Sunday.
The subsidy represents 10 percent of the cost of a standard solar power system, which is about 2 million yen, it said.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry hopes the subsidy will help stimulate mass production of such solar power systems and lower costs.
The subsidy payment could be introduced as early as the current fiscal year to end March 2009, it said.
Home-use solar power systems in Japan now generate a combined total of 1.4 million kilowatts of electricity, the daily said.
In June, the government set a target of boosting solar power generation by 10 times from current levels by 2020 and 40 times by 2030.
That would be equivalent to having roughly 80 percent of newly-built homes equipped with solar power systems, the Nikkei said.
($1=105.97 Yen)
(Reporting by Miho Yoshikawa; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
