Large potential for renewables

 April 4, 2015

Renewable energy could account for 35 percent of 2030 power supply: ministry

http://mainichi.jp/english/english/newsselect/news/20150404p2a00m0na013000c.html

Renewable energy sources could be expanded to account for 24 to 35 percent of Japan's power supply in 2030, according to estimates released by the Ministry of the Environment on April 3.

"The potential for the introduction of renewable energy is large. There are also large policy problems to tackle, however, such as handling the cost of reinforcing the power line network," a ministry official commented.

An expert committee for the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is considering how much higher the country can go than the goal of at least 20 percent for renewable energy sources put forth by the nation's basic energy plan, and the new estimates could influence the committee's conclusions.

Out of the national power output of 939.7 billion kilowatt-hours for fiscal 2013, renewable energy sources including hydroelectric power accounted for only 10.7 percent. According to the newly released estimates, if the full extent of possible preparations were made -- such as reinforcing power lines to allow power exchange across wide areas, and setting up batteries to store charge -- as much as 356.6 billion kilowatt-hours of renewable energy generation would be possible by 2030.

Even if these preparations are not made, however, renewable energy is still predicted to rise to 241.4 billion kilowatt-hours. By these calculations, assuming demand of 1 trillion kilowatt-hours, at least 24 percent should be possible to provide with renewable energy.

The estimates predict that the financial burden on the country's citizens caused by the government buying up renewable energy will be between 1.78 to 2.56 trillion yen. It also predicted between 1.1 to 2.3 trillion yen in average annual economic ripple effects, however, from factors such as construction and infrastructure investment, as well as between 93,000 and 187,000 new jobs per year.

Furthermore, due to less import of fossil fuels, the estimates show that between 15 and 29 trillion yen of funds could be kept from leaving the country through 2030. Annual carbon dioxide emissions could drop by between 86.06 million and 172.8 million tons, while a goal of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by around 10 percent compared to 1990 levels would also be possible.

These estimates were put together by the Mitsubishi Research Institute at the request of the environmental ministry. They were originally planned to be released around June, but members of both the ruling and opposition parties requested that they be released before the expert committee makes its conclusions, which could come as soon as mid-April.

April 04, 2015(Mainichi Japan)