Japan Weighs Energy Options Amid Nuclear, Renewables Debate

[Graeme]

Japan Weighs Its Energy Options Amid Nuclear, Renewables Debate

Phasing out nuclear power in Japan will cost the country the equivalent of $622 billion to build a power grid around renewable energy and means it will fail to meet a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

That’s an estimate from the government as it mulls going ahead with a recommendation made today by its own advisory body to eliminate use of nuclear power — an option also favored by the public — in its first post-Fukushima energy policy.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has called a press conference tomorrow evening in Tokyo when he may follow the advice of the ruling party advisory board and phase out nuclear plants over the next two decades. That would require more use of fossil fuels as wind and solar plants are built, meaning Japan won’t meet a pledge to cut greenhouse gases 25 percent over the three decades starting in 1990.

“There is no doubt the government will scrap the 25 percent target,” Keigo Akimoto at the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth wrote in an e-mail response to questions. Without nuclear, Japan would have to buy 320 million tons of overseas emission credits a year to meet the target, “and amid higher sales taxes and electricity tariffs, there is no way the Japanese public would accept such a massive purchase,” the researcher said.

Meantime, companies from mobile phone operator Softbank Corp. to convenience store chain Lawson Inc. are entering renewable energy as polls and public hearings show a majority of citizens want an exit from nuclear despite the cost. The government is debating to reduce nuclear energy supply to zero percent, 15 percent, or 20-25 percent by 2030.

‘Full Speed’

“No matter which option is selected, renewable energy must be increased in Japan at full speed,” Japan’s second-richest man, Softbank Chairman Masayoshi Son said at an Aug. 29 news conference to announce a plan to build the country’s biggest solar plant.

Under the zero nuclear option, Japan would need to invest 43.6 trillion yen ($548 billion) on solar, wind and other types of renewable energy and 5.2 trillion yen on power grids, according to the government. At least 26.1 trillion yen in spending on renewables would be needed even if the world’s third-largest economy stays with nuclear power.

renewableenergyworld

[seahorse3]

Where's JD to weigh in on this Japanese debate? He lives there and was always pro nuclear as the end all answer.

[Loki]

$622 billion over a decade or more really doesn't seem like all that much money for an economic powerhouse like Japan. If that buys them electricity independence without the threat of a catastrophe like Fukushima, I'd say it's a good deal. It'd be great if the Japanese can figure out how to run a massive grid like theirs entirely on renewables. Once they do that, maybe they can figure out the transportation energy problem

Funny how Germany and Japan led the world to the brink 60 years ago, but are now leading the way forward, at least in terms of addressing some of our energy and climate problems.

ETA: I didn't see this part of the article: "Japan going zero nuclear by 2030 would require 35 percent of electricity supply coming from renewable sources, while the other two scenarios call for a clean energy ratio of as much as 30 percent."

The other 65% is what, coal and NG? I think I'd rather see nuclear stay than more coal burned.

[Graeme]

Japan risks angering both sides with energy mix plan

Efforts by Japan's government to craft an energy mix that will respond to growing anti-nuclear sentiment among voters after the Fukushima crisis without alienating powerful pro-atomic energy interests look in danger of satisfying neither side.

The government is expected to announce as early as Monday an energy portfolio plan to replace a 2010 programme that had called for boosting nuclear power's share of electricity supply to more than half from nearly 30 percent before the crisis.


"If energy cannot be stably supplied at an economically efficient price, not only will the growth strategy be set back, the hollowing-out of industry and employment will be accelerated in the midst of intensified global competition," Japan's biggest business lobby, Keidanren, said in July.

reuters

[Laromi]

Japanese utility mulls thorium reactor for safe nuclear,
By Mark Halper | June 5, 2012, 10:20 PM "PDT researcher, Takashi Kamei, told a thorium conference in Chicago last week that Chubu Electric Power Co. has launched a research program aimed at improving the safety of nuclear power plants, and that, “This research center includes the use of thorium as a future fuel.” ( http://www.smartplanet.com ) With ten/fifteen years time frame for commissioning of a nuclear power station and Japans' current, and no doubt projected need for stable base grid supplied energy, the notion is hard to dismiss; given the tinkering around Japan is doing at present, that a thorium/nuclear reactor is not the current principal choice.