![]() There is a potential risk with higher wind and solar in the system.” Blackouts were avoided, but the margins were thin. ![]() In early January 2021, power reserve margins dipped below 3% in Japan on some days, says Sadamori. The world is seeing a rapid increase in wind and solar power, he adds, “but we need to be sure energy security can be maintained”. These include hydrogen, carbon capture use and storage, and low-carbon fuels. “To achieve net zero globally by 2050, around half of the emission reductions will come from technologies that are not commercially available at this moment,” he says, citing IEA research. While no specific policies have yet been announced to help the country achieve its ambitious net-zero goal, Sadamori says it is clear the government will have to invest more in the research and development of new technologies.įor Japan, which has few natural resources, nuclear power is indispensable to achieve a carbon-free society and power supply resilience. The deal was followed this year with an LNG project in Mozambique, from which Japanese utilities will receive around 30% of production. This move was immediately followed with a widely criticised loan from the state-owned Japan Bank for International Cooperation for a supercritical coal project in Vietnam. In October last year, following its peers, Japan’s government pledged to become a net-zero emissions economy by 2050. “For Japan, which has few natural resources, nuclear power is indispensable to achieve a carbon-free society and power supply resilience.” Beyond nuclear powerĪs it plans its energy future, Japan is under growing international pressure to up its game on climate change. “As a semi-domestic energy resource, nuclear power is highly efficient and highly stable, emits no CO2 during power generation and is distributed throughout the country,” says a spokesperson for TEPCO, which operates 17 nuclear reactors in Japan, including Fukushima Daiichi. Fukushima Daiichi was a different, boiling water reactor type. Only nine nuclear reactors have restarted and these are all pressurised water reactors, says the World Nuclear Association. ![]() The hold-up is related to new safety requirements to bolster protection against terrorist attacks, Sadamori says. “It has to use existing nuclear, otherwise it is a waste of money,” he says, adding that extending their lifetime is the cheapest form of low-carbon electricity in Japan – even with the falling cost of renewable technologies. Keisuke Sadamori, director of energy security and markets at the International Energy Agency (IEA), says the quickest way for Japan to cut its emissions is to get its nuclear plants back online. In 2010, before the accident, they stood at 429g of CO2 per kilowatt hour by 2017, they were up 15% to 496g, having peaked at 572g in 2013. “Japan is still building coal plants,” Kikuma says, adding that these are “pipeline projects from a long time ago”.Īt a time when the world is focused on reducing emissions, Japan’s average grid power-related emissions are moving in the wrong direction. Existing fossil fuel plants have increased their output and new plants have come online. As of 2019, that share stood at 72%, he adds. In 2010, fossil fuels generated around 60% of Japan’s power, soaring to 88% in 2012, Kikuma says. Natural gas output rose a similar amount year-on-year to 35% of the power mix in 2011, according to GlobalData. It saw older oil-fired plants resuscitated with generation from them rising six percentage points from 2010, to 14%. The abrupt nuclear shutdowns after Fukushima led to rolling blackouts that highlighted the fragility of the country’s power system, with a monopolistic structure favouring large utilities. Its mountainous and forested terrain, and proneness to earthquakes, compound the challenge. Ten years later, the country is still trying to find its way forward on energy, battling with the dual pressures of climate change mitigation and security of supply. Prior to the Fukushima incident, Japan had planned to increase the share of nuclear to as much as 50% of its power supply by 2030, says the World Nuclear Association. Cables lead away from Yamakura Dam’s floating solar plant in Ichihara, Japan. Public support for the power source has yet to recover, and safety guidelines to restart nuclear power plants “are quite strict”, says Isshu Kikuma, energy analyst for Japan at BloombergNEF in Tokyo. In 2011, that share dropped to 14% and, as of last year, was down to less than 5%. Nuclear power had accounted for almost 30% of the country’s electricity generation in 2010. Fearful of further accidents, all 54 of the country’s nuclear plants were taken offline for safety checks. ![]() On 11 March 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the east coast of Japan triggered a tsunami which led to a meltdown at three reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
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