Japan: NEDO selects 3 new companies under Green Innovation Fund Next-Generation Solar Cell Demonstration Project

Mechanism

NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization), operating under METI's Green Innovation Fund, runs the "Development of Next-Generation Solar Cells" programme with a dedicated "Next-Generation Solar Cell Demonstration Project" sub-track. On 2025-09-10 NEDO announced three newly selected companies for this sub-track, each committing to commercialisation plans at 200-300MW production scale by 2030. NEDO's support for this tranche totals JPY 37.8 billion, running fiscal 2024 through 2030 (seven years). The demonstration project funds mass-production technology development plus field trials — installations on lightweight roofs and building facades, both domestically and abroad, with user-company collaboration — for perovskite solar cells, which are lightweight, flexible, and can be applied to curved/non-standard surfaces unlike conventional crystalline-silicon panels. Programme-level targets are 20GW of cumulative deployment by 2040 and a levelised generation cost of JPY 14/kWh, positioned as core to Japan's industrial strategy for building a domestic perovskite supply chain ahead of anticipated global scale-up.

Downstream implications

• Part of the broader Western/allied industrial-policy pattern of subsidy-led reshoring in

next-generation solar manufacturing, parallel to Australia's ARENA-backed copper-metallisation solar-cell grant to SunDrive (see 2025-11-11-australia-arena-sundrive-copper-solar-cell-grant) — both funding programmes aim to establish non-Chinese-controlled solar-cell manufacturing capacity as China dominates conventional silicon-cell and module production globally. Perovskite technology in particular is an area where Japan holds early IP leadership (Sekisui Chemical, Panasonic and others), making state co-investment a bid to convert lab advantage into manufacturing scale before Chinese competitors catch up.

• If the 2040 20GW target and 200-300MW-per-company commercialisation plans are met, this

represents a meaningful non-Chinese perovskite manufacturing base, with potential export relevance given the demonstration project explicitly funds international installations.

Open questions

• Names of the three newly adopted companies were not disclosed in the source press release

summary available; a follow-up NEDO announcement or company disclosure may name them.

• No confirmation yet on manufacturing cost-per-watt versus incumbent crystalline-silicon cells

at the 200-300MW commercial scale targeted by this tranche.