Spread over three days and several exhibits, World Smart Energy Week 2019 attracted 66,579 visitors to Tokyo’s Big Sight Conference Center, according to show organizer Reed Exhibitions Japan.

Though we’re unlikely to see a return to the days of double-figure GW annual installation levels, Japan will stay at the top table of solar. Last week, pv magazine visited PV Expo Japan, part of Tokyo’s World Smart Energy Week, and found plenty of market developments to discuss, along with healthy interest from major players.

While there was a lot of talk about Japan’s shift toward residential and self-consumption, the country still boasts a large utility-scale pipeline. As the Ministry for Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has set deadlines for such projects to qualify for the FIT – next March for projects with a capacity smaller than 2 MW, and September 2020 for projects that are bigger than 2 MW – Tokyo-based analyst RTS Corporation expects up to 7 GW of new PV to come online in Japan this year.