Silver lining in sight for makers of solar panels

[kristopher]

Silver lining in sight for makers of solar panels

By MARIKO YASU and MAKI SHIRAKI
Bloomberg

Akiko Hirai says the Hamaoka power station 3 km from her home evokes such dread of the crippled Fukushima plant that she would spend ¥500,000 installing solar panels if it helped make Japan nuclear-free.

"Who can really guarantee that they're 100 percent safe? I want nuclear plants to be halted if they're so frail," said the 53-year-old housewife, who's lived in Shizuoka Prefecture for more than 20 years. "It's not that I'm worried about myself, it's my daughter and other small children I'm concerned about."

Hirai helps illustrate Japan's growing antinuclear movement in the wake of the world's biggest nuclear accident since Chernobyl. That's creating an opportunity for makers of solar equipment such as Panasonic Corp. and Sharp Corp. to capitalize on orders that analysts estimate may exceed $100 billion over the next decade, bringing down costs for consumers.

"It's become clear we can't keep relying on nuclear power or fossil fuels," said Koji Toda, chief fund manager at Resona Bank Ltd. in Tokyo. "Still, solar power is too expensive for the market to bloom without subsidies. It's easy to agree on the big picture but not so easy to determine who pays the price."

Toshiba Corp. and...

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20110422n1.html

[kristopher]

1. In economics there is a term, "willingness to pay"

It is one gauge by which to measure just how deeply people actually feel about something. This article raises the question of just how deep the feelings from the experience of Fukushima are, and it illustrates it with the woman being willing to pay a lot not for electricity per se, but specifically for electricity that gets rid of nuclear.