As the people of Japan try to recover from 2011′s massive earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent nuclear disaster, there may be a silver lining among all the clouds. The Fukushima fallout shook the public’s faith in nuclear power so severely that the government is now shifting its course toward renewable energy instead.

Japanese officials recently announced intentions to establish a generous subsidy for renewable energy via a feed-in tariff (FIT) next month. Clean energy companies, especially those involved with solar, see the FIT as a massive opportunity that’s likely to explode the industry in the world’s third largest economy.

Up until now, Japan has only generated about 1 percent of its power from alternative energy sources, but the new FIT is expected to increase this number almost overnight. Japan’s Yano Research Institute expects investment in the country’s solar power sector to grow to 1.48 trillion yen ($18.9 billion) in fiscal 2015 from 655.3 billion yen in the 2010 financial year.

According to Reuters, the FIT, which excludes large hydro-electric schemes, will require utilities to buy electricity generated by renewable sources such as solar, wind and geothermal heat at a premium for 20 years. Costs will be passed on to consumers through higher power bills.

It’s funny how coming face to face with the truly life-threatening risks of dirty energy can make “issues” like higher electric bills seem trivial. For the first time in a long time, the Japanese people got a glimpse of what can be destroyed when “safe” nuclear reactors are damaged and fail. That’s all it took for them to send a clear message to the government that they no longer want to depend on nuclear power, and the government responded quickly.

Of course, some experts are skeptical–and with good reason. Flooding the market with funds from the FIT might create an energy bubble that will burst when prices eventually come down. But many in the renewable energy industry say this is to be expected, and the benefits will still outweigh the costs of sticking with nuclear.

Still others argue that the FIT will actually reduce the cost of solar-generated electricity enabling it to reach grid parity and thus stand on its own without subsidies. It will also allow smaller and foreign companies to compete with the Japanese utilities that have long dominated the renewable energy industry.

Photo credit: U.S. Navy/Flickr