Underwriters Laboratories (UL), announced the opening of a testing and certification facility for photovoltaic (PV) equipment in Ise City, Mie Prefecture, Japan. In addition to offering performance and safety testing services for PV equipment in Japan, the facility will provide technical support to Japanese PV equipment manufacturers as they develop their businesses and enter overseas markets.
The global demand for sustainable energy generating sources, such as PV systems, has increased. The governments of the U.S. and Japan, as well as market-leading Germany, continue to take proactive steps to develop the PV market and accelerate PV equipment production. In Japan the government’s roadmap for reaching greenhouse gas reduction targets includes a national policy to expand the reach of PV power generation to 10 million households by 2020, which constitutes a 21-fold increase compared with 2005.