The Agreement to Go Down to the Roof: A Story of Kawasaki City and the Restoration of Trust in Solar Energy (2006)

The Agreement to Go Down to the Roof: A Story of Kawasaki City and the Restoration of Trust in Solar Energy (2006)

With the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol in 2005, Japan became legally bound to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and in 2006, a public reporting system was launched. The Energy Conservation Law was also strengthened in the transportation and residential sectors, and the heat of "decarbonization" began to reach household roofs. At the same time, government subsidies for residential solar power came to an end in 2005, leaving the future of solar power diffusion to the wisdom and on-the-ground capabilities of local governments. This background has cast a shadow over Kawasaki's roofs and brought them into the light.

In fiscal 2006, Kawasaki City established a subsidy program for the introduction of solar power for households. The number of applications for about 100 households reached the maximum limit within a month, and the additional slots were quickly filled. Citizens' expectations and speed were such that they were willing to put panels on their roofs, regardless of the price difference between the technology and the system. However, behind this momentum, malicious solicitation for "high-priced equipment" was becoming a nationwide problem. Door-to-door sales, repetitive contracts, and estimates that exceed market prices. The growing environmental awareness was causing other concerns.

The city developed a form of agreement. The city has concluded an "Agreement on the Prevention of Consumer Trouble in Residential Equipment Contracts" with solar power generation installation companies and made their promises to attend manufacturer training sessions, provide thorough estimates in advance, and clarify construction details visible in the form of an agreement. The city has issued a sticker to the best operators, and the list is available at the city office and on the website. Citizens can obtain the list and know where to look for peace of mind. Businesses will be able to escape the muddy waters of being lumped together as "bad," and will have a stage on which they can compete in a straightforward manner. The government protects the citizens' willingness to adopt and builds bridges to nurture local industries in a healthy manner. At the place where the three parties' words meet, the railing of an agreement is set in place.

This agreement is not merely a strengthening of administrative procedures. It was a social device to link the increased demand created by the lure of subsidies to the satisfaction and satisfaction of each and every case. Kawasaki City later operated an agreement to prevent contractual problems in housing construction in general, and continued to publicize the agreement stores and consultation system. The system is being renewed, and the outline of "peace of mind" in daily life is becoming more and more profound as the years go by. Citizens compare multiple estimates, businesses fulfill their accountability, and the government backs them up with information disclosure. The idea of the agreement lives on to this day, and has been passed down to the alerts for solar power and storage battery contracts and the information on the consultation service.

Looking around, in 2003, the Photovoltaic Power Generation Association concluded a tripartite cooperation agreement with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Kawasaki City. The "manners of trust" fostered by Kawasaki in 2006 will eventually branch out into wide-area collaboration. The agreement is a form of consensus that links policy, the market, and roof-by-roof decision-making. The light of the agreement that fell on the roof of Kawasaki that year still remains as a sign of the city.

Supplementary note: Historical background and primary sources of information
The information on the establishment of the Kawasaki City subsidy, the outline of the agreement, and the flood of applications as of 2006 is based on the description in the magazine of that issue.
In terms of the national system, the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol in 2005, the revision of the Law Concerning the Promotion of the Measures to Cope with Global Warming in 2006, and the temporary termination of subsidies for residential solar power generation encouraged local governments to take the initiative in the diffusion of solar power generation.