The biggest change over the past year has been the shift from residential projects to the development of utility-scale PV plants, according to statistics from the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association (JPEA).

A total of 1.53GW of PV modules were shipped to developers of non-residential projects this year, compared to 539.9MW shipped for residential installations. In the second quarter of 2012, residential demand accounted for 446.4MW