Aug 17, 2012

Leasing & Finance Company to Invest Nearly $700 Million in …

Japanese finance and leasing company Orix Corp. plans to make 54 billion yen ($680 million) of solar power investments over the next three years. Some 30 billion yen will be invested in solar power farms, while another 24 billion yen is to be invested in leasing rooftop space and installing solar panels on factories and warehouses, Bloomberg News reports.

The Japanese government last month launched a renewable energy feed-in tariff (FiT) program that subsidizes solar, wind, and other renewable energy installations by paying above-market rates and paying for them via consumer surcharges. Japan’s solar FiT has been set at 42 yen-per-kilowatt-hour for 20 years, which is about three times the amount industrial consumers paid for electricity in the 12 months ending in March 2012, according to Bloomberg’s report.
Clean Technica (http://s.tt/1l3GW)