**5. Conclusions**

This paper discussed an SHP development business model in which the local community will become the business owner. It is focused "of the community, by the community and for the community" by discussed a case study of community-based 50 kW SHP installed in rural Japan. This SHP is one of the best cases of a community ownership SHP model in Japan. The local community is getting approximately 112,000 USD per year by selling the electricity and 162 tons CO2 are estimated to decrease yearly, which will support the achievement of SDGs. Installing this kind of SHP will provide managerial skills to the community, plant operation knowledge, and education to local people. Local communities learn the problem-solving skills and implicit know-how, which lead them to solve the local problem on a community level. Finally, it is concluded that SHP can play a vital role in community development. SHP makes a network of stakeholders, it integrates the local community to the urban stakeholders, and it creates jobs for the local community, which help to engage the local youth to be at home.

In recent times, a localized, independent generation of energy has started and it is growing. An SHP achieves break-even within 8–12 years depending on the investment, but the Japanese government gives FIT for 20 years. This money helps local people to do their community development. The community no longer depends on government subsidies for their development from now on. They use this SHP money for their agriculture land improvement, renovation of local community halls, roads, etc. It gives a means of independence to the local community.

To install more and more SHP, there is a need to make an attractive community-based business model, which includes both rural people and urban stakeholders. This paper has suggested a community owned SHP model, which can be used to install more and more SHP for the local community. It gives ownership to the local community, as the local people identify their problems, install the SHP and do necessary maintenance and management. The income generated by selling electricity is received by the newly established corporation/company composed of all the community members. This association pays the loan to finance companies or banks and utilizes the rest of this money for the development locally. This new community-based action not only works on SHP development, but also the planning to use other natural resources available in the community. It will promote the community independence and self-sustainable to make sustainability.

With a number of benefits, there are some limitations that need to be fixed in the future. First, the Japanese government is paying a high FIT on SHP, but it still needs to revise. The equipment's and labor costs are high, and so the rate of return becomes slow. If 100% money is borrowed, the project payback period increases to 10–12 years, which should be below 10 years.

Second, local communities are not always aware and do not have much skill and confidence to manage and operate their natural resources. Therefore, they do not decide to invest the revenue earned by selling electricity. In the future, it is necessary to make a

plan for the proper utilization of sales revenue. It is necessary to introduce a new player who will take care of this investment to develop the local culture, agriculture land, and community needs. There is a possibility to include university professors or NGOs or the local city office as a coordinator and interpreter. They will take care of revenue earned to use properly for the development of community road, culture, agriculture needs, etc. The community people will decide about the investment area and they will inform them.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, Z.A. and T.F.; methodology, Z.A.; software, S.H.; validation, T.F., S.H. and Y.W.; formal analysis, S.H.; investigation, Z.A.; resources, T.F.; data curation, Z.A., T.F. and Y.W.; writing—original draft preparation, Z.A. and S.H.; writing—review and editing, T.F. and S.H.; visualization, Y.W.; supervision, T.F. and T.S.; project administration, T.S. and Y.W.; funding acquisition, T.F. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** JSPS KAKEN, 18K14538, Tokihiko Fujimoto.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** Not applicable.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
