Japan: Solar panels to go in 30% of houses by 2030

The government will aim for 30 percent of all households to have solar panels installed by 2030 as part of its efforts to fight global warming, officials said.

Under the target, the number of solar-powered households would increase to 14 million from the current 400,000, and the capacity of such generation would expand 30-fold from the current 1.3 million kilowatts, the officials said.
The target will be incorporated into a program for innovative technologies to cut greenhouse gas emissions to be announced in July at the Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido, they said.

In a bid to develop new, low-cost solar panels so ordinary households can install them, the government plans to set up a research institution in fiscal 2008, and is seeking