Change in Energy Consciousness and Spread of Photovoltaic Cells after the Great East Japan Earthquake

The awareness about the energy security and acceptability of renewable energy ha s increased in Japan since the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011 and the subsequent accident at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. Against this background, the Japanese government launched a feed-in-tariff (FIT) in 2012. These situations give business opportunities not only to large enterprises but also to SMEs and start-ups related to the renewable energy. However, if a renewable energy enterprise wants to establish a solid business foundation, it has to know its internal and external business environment. In this paper, the author focused on the spread of residential photovoltaic (PV) systems and analyzed its social demand as the external business environment. The author used internet questionnaires to discover what households think of the conventional and renewable energy and what they do for energy saving. It was found that that more than half of the Japanese people, especially the people accepting the PV systems have raised their awareness of electricity and energy conservation and became more interested in the renewable energy after the 2011 disaster. The level of RET demand is thought to be increasing in Japan. However, at the same time, the survey shows signs of a decline in the RET demand in the future.