JAPAN
25 March 2014
Japan: towards a renewable energy future?
Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan has the opportunity to chart a new future based on renewable energy, writes Aline Schaltz from Tokyo's Sophia University.
Following the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan has the opportunity to chart a new future, one based on renewable energy. What are the issues, and what are the chances, asks Aline Schaltz from Tokyo's Sophia University?
First of all, what are the main energy sources for Japan's electricity production?
In recent decades, Japan's electricity production has been substantially based on fossil fuels like coal, gas and oil. Together they account for two-thirds of Japan's electricity production. In fact, the use of fossil fuels has risen steadily over the last thirty years, and increased very sharply during the last 3 years when most of Japan's nuclear power stations have been closed.
As Japan has very little natural resources, it imports about 95% of its fossil fuel demand from other countries. In 2010, Japan was the world's leading coal importer, with about 20% of the world's total, and also the leading natural gas importer, with 12.1% of the world total. Japan is thus very dependent on energy imports and vulnerable to increases in energy prices, or even a possible energy crisis in the coming decades.
Moreover, Japan's increasing fossil fuel consumption should not be seen as a long term solution for energy supply for the country, in light of carbon dioxide emissions and their impact on global warming.
Nuclear power has been the second most important energy supply for electricity production in Japan. Nuclear energy use increased between 1980 and 2000, and then was fairly stable for the next decade, accounting for one-quarter of energy for electricity production. Nuclear power has been seen as “THE” solution for energy self-sufficiency, even though uranium is also a raw material which has to be imported.
But following the Fukushima disaster in March 2011, nuclear energy has been strongly criticized in Japan. In fact, Japan is situated in between two tectonic plates and is thus a region of important volcano activity, which is often hit by light or more important earthquakes. Further, its geographical and geological situation makes it impossible to stock nuclear waste in permanent shelters. One current challenge is thus to find a country which is willing to receive Japan's nuclear waste. A solution is however yet to be found.
All things considered, it seems rather irresponsible to continue investing and developing nuclear power plants in Japan. Nevertheless, this is what is happening currently under the new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who is pledging to restart reactors that have been deemed safe.
The third most important energy source for electricity production in Japan is hydroelectricity. However, this makes a relatively minor contribution and has remained stable during the last 30 years.
And last, but not least, Japan has, to a very small extent, electricity production based on renewable energies. Its use of renewable energies is substantially lower than in most other advanced countries. In 2011, they accounted for about 1.6% of the total electricity production in Japan.
This very small proportion for renewable energy seems incomprehensible when looking at the geological and geographical situation of Japan. As a matter of fact, the country offers large opportunities to use very successfully alternative energies.
-- With its important solar radiation and a large surface of (until now) uncovered rooftops, photovoltaics could easily be installed and produce an important amount of energy which could be directly used by individual households.
-- As an island country, Japan offers numerous coastal regions where off-shore wind engines could be installed and supply factories as well as whole towns with energy.
-- Japan also has great geothermal potential which could be easily exploited and converted into electricity, once infrastructure is installed.
-- And as Japan is very densely populated, its waste could be converted into biofuel/agrofuel and used to produce electricity.
In short, there are many possibilities to make important increases in energy production using renewable energies. But Japan's big energy companies have until now not been interested. There are 10 regional electricity monopolies in Japan which concentrate on nuclear power as this offers until now the cheapest electricity price. The nuclear power lobby is very strong in Japan, with important influence over politicians and METI (Ministry of Economic, Trade and Industry). Also other business lobbies are rather pro-nuclear as they fear massive price hikes in the case of a switch to renewable energies.
The issue of energy prices should however be analysed in more detail. Nuclear power, as well as electricity coming from fossil fuels, can be as cheap because the price of “de-pollution” is not included. If one would include to every kWh of energy sold, the amount of money necessary to deal with climate change, nuclear waste and disasters such as the Fukushima Dai-ichi, the cost of nuclear and fossil fuel energy would by far exceed energy prices from renewable energies. The price argument against renewable energies is thus not valid.
Despite the important influence of the nuclear power lobby, there have been nevertheless important changes in Japan's energy policy during the last 2 years. These changes are especially due to the former Prime Minister Naoto Kan. He was Prime Minister during the time of the Fukushima disaster, and was heavily criticized for his crisis management.
Kan agreed to resign in August 2011 on the condition that some energy policy laws be passed by the Diet. One of the laws was the feed-in tariff law (FIT). Kan's idea was to boost renewables so that they could account for about one-fifth of Japan's energy mix by the 2020s. The tariff, launched in July, obliges utility companies to buy electricity from renewable sources at fixed prices. In most cases, the utility companies are buying the renewable-generated power from private individuals and companies.
The feed-in tariff is thus an amount paid by a government to businesses, individual households and other organizations to generate renewable electricity. That power is then sold to the utilities at a fixed rate over a set period of time. The utilities, in turn, can require their customers to pay a surcharge for electricity generated from renewable sources, depending on the amount they individually use.
The goal of this relatively new law is to encourage investment in renewable electricity generation by ensuring that providers of such power can profit over a certain period of time, and that prices will remain stable for the purchases required by the utilities. The amount of the tariff varies between the different types of energy production and depends on the capacity of the producer’s infrastructure. The feed-in tariffs for renewable energy are showing their first modest results as the share of renewable energy production has risen to 4% in 2013. This trend is likely to increase.
Geothermal energy currently accounts for only 0.3% of total energy production, but has the capacity to meet 10% of Japan’s electricity needs. However, many hot springs reside in national parks, which are protected by laws preventing geothermal use. Others are protected for local vested interests in the onsen (natural spa) trade. Legislative changes must thus be made in order to achieve the full potential of geothermal energy production. Japan has (in 2011) 18 geothermal plants. Japan ranks third worldwide in geothermal resources, behind Indonesia and the United States. There is an estimated 23.5 GW of geothermal energy that could be tapped — the equivalent of 20 nuclear power plants.
Japan was the world's second largest producer of photovoltaic electricity in early 2000s, until it was overtaken by Germany in 2005. On 1 July 2012, the new tariffs for renewable energy were introduced and production of photovoltaic electricity experienced important growth again, exceeding Germany and Italy, placing Japan on the second rank behind China. One-third of the renewable energy in Japan is solar energy, with production increasing for additional solar installations in 2013. Japan's total solar capacity was 7.4GW at the end of 2012. One GW can supply power to an estimated 250,000 homes.
In mid-September 2012, METI announced plans to spend up to ¥20 billion installing six offshore floating wind turbines in Fukushima Prefecture over the next five years. In addition, METI hopes to add an additional 1 million kW from wind power in the Tohoku region by 2020. Japan had 1,807 wind turbines with a total capacity of 2440 MW as of September 2011.
A lack of locations with constant wind, environmental restrictions, and emphasis by power utilities on fossil and nuclear power hinders the employment of more wind power in the country. This new found enthusiasm for wind power by the central government is due to a number of reasons, not the least of which is its relatively low cost when compared with other renewable energy sources. The fact that many Japanese firms like Hitachi and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are already aggressive players in the international market is another contributing factor.
Biomass is another renewable energy source on which Japan could rely on in order to achieve energy autonomy. As of September 2011, Japan had 190 generators attached to municipal waste units and 70 independent plants using biomass fuel to produce energy. The Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Ministry lists 13 different biomass sources in three categories: waste materials, untapped resources and crops for industrial use.
Two years have passed since an earthquake and tsunami destroyed the huge Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant owned by Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO). This event resulted in the shutdown of the country’s 54 nuclear plants for stress testing, maintenance and further seismic analysis. With the last reactor turned off in May 2012, last summer Japan lived without nuclear power for the first time since 1970. To meet the demand in energy, fossil fuels were imported to a larger amount and replaced thus the part of energy production by nuclear plants. This solution seems acceptable for the short term, but should not represent a long term solution.
Winston Churchill once said that you should “never let a good crisis go to waste”. Japan should take inspiration from this and use the Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster and the subsequent shutdown of all nuclear plants in order to reconsider its energy policy and eventually ban nuclear energy from its program. Over the long term, after some considerable investments, the share of nuclear energy could however be easily covered by renewable energy production. Instead of investing further into nuclear power and its reconstruction, Japan’s government should invest in renewable energies.
But the rising use of renewable energies means energy bills will spike in a short term. This could potentially complicate Abe's plan to jump-start Japan's long-foundering economy. Japan and the whole world is looking now with great interest on Shinzō Abe. However, he seems more inclined to continue with nuclear power rather than renewable energy.
Japan has the industrial skills and natural resources to be a world leader on the renewable energy market. It could also inspire other Asian countries to follow its example. A shift to renewable energies could be, over the long term, an important development of Japan and help relaunch it as one of the world's leading economies.
Shinzō Abe should make renewable energy the fourth arrow of Abenomics!
First of all, what are the main energy sources for Japan's electricity production?
In recent decades, Japan's electricity production has been substantially based on fossil fuels like coal, gas and oil. Together they account for two-thirds of Japan's electricity production. In fact, the use of fossil fuels has risen steadily over the last thirty years, and increased very sharply during the last 3 years when most of Japan's nuclear power stations have been closed.
As Japan has very little natural resources, it imports about 95% of its fossil fuel demand from other countries. In 2010, Japan was the world's leading coal importer, with about 20% of the world's total, and also the leading natural gas importer, with 12.1% of the world total. Japan is thus very dependent on energy imports and vulnerable to increases in energy prices, or even a possible energy crisis in the coming decades.
Moreover, Japan's increasing fossil fuel consumption should not be seen as a long term solution for energy supply for the country, in light of carbon dioxide emissions and their impact on global warming.
Nuclear power has been the second most important energy supply for electricity production in Japan. Nuclear energy use increased between 1980 and 2000, and then was fairly stable for the next decade, accounting for one-quarter of energy for electricity production. Nuclear power has been seen as “THE” solution for energy self-sufficiency, even though uranium is also a raw material which has to be imported.
But following the Fukushima disaster in March 2011, nuclear energy has been strongly criticized in Japan. In fact, Japan is situated in between two tectonic plates and is thus a region of important volcano activity, which is often hit by light or more important earthquakes. Further, its geographical and geological situation makes it impossible to stock nuclear waste in permanent shelters. One current challenge is thus to find a country which is willing to receive Japan's nuclear waste. A solution is however yet to be found.
All things considered, it seems rather irresponsible to continue investing and developing nuclear power plants in Japan. Nevertheless, this is what is happening currently under the new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who is pledging to restart reactors that have been deemed safe.
The third most important energy source for electricity production in Japan is hydroelectricity. However, this makes a relatively minor contribution and has remained stable during the last 30 years.
And last, but not least, Japan has, to a very small extent, electricity production based on renewable energies. Its use of renewable energies is substantially lower than in most other advanced countries. In 2011, they accounted for about 1.6% of the total electricity production in Japan.
This very small proportion for renewable energy seems incomprehensible when looking at the geological and geographical situation of Japan. As a matter of fact, the country offers large opportunities to use very successfully alternative energies.
-- With its important solar radiation and a large surface of (until now) uncovered rooftops, photovoltaics could easily be installed and produce an important amount of energy which could be directly used by individual households.
-- As an island country, Japan offers numerous coastal regions where off-shore wind engines could be installed and supply factories as well as whole towns with energy.
-- Japan also has great geothermal potential which could be easily exploited and converted into electricity, once infrastructure is installed.
-- And as Japan is very densely populated, its waste could be converted into biofuel/agrofuel and used to produce electricity.
In short, there are many possibilities to make important increases in energy production using renewable energies. But Japan's big energy companies have until now not been interested. There are 10 regional electricity monopolies in Japan which concentrate on nuclear power as this offers until now the cheapest electricity price. The nuclear power lobby is very strong in Japan, with important influence over politicians and METI (Ministry of Economic, Trade and Industry). Also other business lobbies are rather pro-nuclear as they fear massive price hikes in the case of a switch to renewable energies.
The issue of energy prices should however be analysed in more detail. Nuclear power, as well as electricity coming from fossil fuels, can be as cheap because the price of “de-pollution” is not included. If one would include to every kWh of energy sold, the amount of money necessary to deal with climate change, nuclear waste and disasters such as the Fukushima Dai-ichi, the cost of nuclear and fossil fuel energy would by far exceed energy prices from renewable energies. The price argument against renewable energies is thus not valid.
Despite the important influence of the nuclear power lobby, there have been nevertheless important changes in Japan's energy policy during the last 2 years. These changes are especially due to the former Prime Minister Naoto Kan. He was Prime Minister during the time of the Fukushima disaster, and was heavily criticized for his crisis management.
Kan agreed to resign in August 2011 on the condition that some energy policy laws be passed by the Diet. One of the laws was the feed-in tariff law (FIT). Kan's idea was to boost renewables so that they could account for about one-fifth of Japan's energy mix by the 2020s. The tariff, launched in July, obliges utility companies to buy electricity from renewable sources at fixed prices. In most cases, the utility companies are buying the renewable-generated power from private individuals and companies.
The feed-in tariff is thus an amount paid by a government to businesses, individual households and other organizations to generate renewable electricity. That power is then sold to the utilities at a fixed rate over a set period of time. The utilities, in turn, can require their customers to pay a surcharge for electricity generated from renewable sources, depending on the amount they individually use.
The goal of this relatively new law is to encourage investment in renewable electricity generation by ensuring that providers of such power can profit over a certain period of time, and that prices will remain stable for the purchases required by the utilities. The amount of the tariff varies between the different types of energy production and depends on the capacity of the producer’s infrastructure. The feed-in tariffs for renewable energy are showing their first modest results as the share of renewable energy production has risen to 4% in 2013. This trend is likely to increase.
Geothermal energy currently accounts for only 0.3% of total energy production, but has the capacity to meet 10% of Japan’s electricity needs. However, many hot springs reside in national parks, which are protected by laws preventing geothermal use. Others are protected for local vested interests in the onsen (natural spa) trade. Legislative changes must thus be made in order to achieve the full potential of geothermal energy production. Japan has (in 2011) 18 geothermal plants. Japan ranks third worldwide in geothermal resources, behind Indonesia and the United States. There is an estimated 23.5 GW of geothermal energy that could be tapped — the equivalent of 20 nuclear power plants.
Japan was the world's second largest producer of photovoltaic electricity in early 2000s, until it was overtaken by Germany in 2005. On 1 July 2012, the new tariffs for renewable energy were introduced and production of photovoltaic electricity experienced important growth again, exceeding Germany and Italy, placing Japan on the second rank behind China. One-third of the renewable energy in Japan is solar energy, with production increasing for additional solar installations in 2013. Japan's total solar capacity was 7.4GW at the end of 2012. One GW can supply power to an estimated 250,000 homes.
In mid-September 2012, METI announced plans to spend up to ¥20 billion installing six offshore floating wind turbines in Fukushima Prefecture over the next five years. In addition, METI hopes to add an additional 1 million kW from wind power in the Tohoku region by 2020. Japan had 1,807 wind turbines with a total capacity of 2440 MW as of September 2011.
A lack of locations with constant wind, environmental restrictions, and emphasis by power utilities on fossil and nuclear power hinders the employment of more wind power in the country. This new found enthusiasm for wind power by the central government is due to a number of reasons, not the least of which is its relatively low cost when compared with other renewable energy sources. The fact that many Japanese firms like Hitachi and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are already aggressive players in the international market is another contributing factor.
Biomass is another renewable energy source on which Japan could rely on in order to achieve energy autonomy. As of September 2011, Japan had 190 generators attached to municipal waste units and 70 independent plants using biomass fuel to produce energy. The Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Ministry lists 13 different biomass sources in three categories: waste materials, untapped resources and crops for industrial use.
Two years have passed since an earthquake and tsunami destroyed the huge Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant owned by Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO). This event resulted in the shutdown of the country’s 54 nuclear plants for stress testing, maintenance and further seismic analysis. With the last reactor turned off in May 2012, last summer Japan lived without nuclear power for the first time since 1970. To meet the demand in energy, fossil fuels were imported to a larger amount and replaced thus the part of energy production by nuclear plants. This solution seems acceptable for the short term, but should not represent a long term solution.
Winston Churchill once said that you should “never let a good crisis go to waste”. Japan should take inspiration from this and use the Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster and the subsequent shutdown of all nuclear plants in order to reconsider its energy policy and eventually ban nuclear energy from its program. Over the long term, after some considerable investments, the share of nuclear energy could however be easily covered by renewable energy production. Instead of investing further into nuclear power and its reconstruction, Japan’s government should invest in renewable energies.
But the rising use of renewable energies means energy bills will spike in a short term. This could potentially complicate Abe's plan to jump-start Japan's long-foundering economy. Japan and the whole world is looking now with great interest on Shinzō Abe. However, he seems more inclined to continue with nuclear power rather than renewable energy.
Japan has the industrial skills and natural resources to be a world leader on the renewable energy market. It could also inspire other Asian countries to follow its example. A shift to renewable energies could be, over the long term, an important development of Japan and help relaunch it as one of the world's leading economies.
Shinzō Abe should make renewable energy the fourth arrow of Abenomics!
REFERENCES:
- Energy Security in East Asia by Richard Giragosian. Institute for the Analysis of Global Security. August 13, 2004.- 94% of renewable energy projects approved under Japan’s feed-in-tariff programs are for solar energy generation. Eurotechnology Japan. May 31, 2013.
- Energy: Difference Engine: Life without nukes. The Economist. April 8th 2013
- After Fukushima, Japan beginning to see the light in solar energy. The Guardian. 18 June 2013.
- Geothermal trove lies mostly untapped despite energy crisis. The Japan Times. 27 September, 2011.