Japan could be a leader in energy efficiency and clean, non nuclear, energy

In one global survey of energy efficiency, Japan still ranked fourth, behind the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. Just think if it ranked first……

In the decades since the war, Japan has repeatedly demonstrated its technological genius, from Fujitsu supercomputers and Sony televisions to Nintendo consoles and Toyota hybrids. If it applied that creativity and drive to achieving sustainable, smart energy self-sufficiency, it could turn the disaster of Fukushima into a catalyst for global greatness, and all but win the future.

Japan should make disaster the mother of invention,Japan Times, BY JAMES GIBNEY BLOOMBERG, 15 Mar 14, “….Abe’s pro-nuke leanings — the original language of his 2014 plan actually had to be toned down — seem shortsighted, dangerous and even politically unwise. It’s not as if Japan’s seismic activity has slackened, and several of its reactors sit on or near faults. Although Japan has revamped its nuclear regulatory apparatus, its “nuclear village” — a collusive nexus of politicians, bureaucrats and nuclear executives — remains largely intact.

As reactors come up for reauthorization, it’s not clear that the new Nuclear RegulationAuthority will have the spine or resources to put the public interest ahead of political pressure, especially when it comes from the top.

Not only did a recent poll show that 69 percent of respondents wanted nuclear power phased out, but six former prime ministers — including ex-nuclear champion Yasuhiro Nakasone and Abe’s mentor Junichiro Koizumi — have given it the big thumbs down. After three years, Japanese consumers can also see that life without nuclear power is hardly impossible, and it doesn’t come with blackouts.

In the short term, there’s considerable economic logic to reopening those plants with impeccable safety records and safeguards. Over time, however, the wiser course would be to follow the path laid out by Koizumi, who

remains one of the country’s most interesting and most popular politicians: more renewables, greater efficiency,

and goodbye to the nuclear Godzilla.

Right now, renewables play a relatively small part in Japan’s energy mix.

Yet in a fascinating article last December, Andrew DeWit of Rikkyo University talked about Koizumi’s vision and laid out how Japan’s energy path could change. Its power market is being deregulated, the number of independent power producers is rising (including new players such as Toyota Motor Corp.), and distributed and renewable power sources (as opposed to large plants plugged into centralized grids) are becoming more popular. Kyoto, which is hosting the Smart City Expo later this month, has just put forward an energy plan that relies on 15 percent conservation and a tripling of renewable power by 2020.

In some of his other writings, DeWit has highlighted the enormous gains to be had from increasing energy efficiency in Japan. One recent study by McKinsey & Co., for instance, estimates that 100 percent diffusion of LED lighting throughout Japan would cut power demand by the equivalent of seven nuclear reactors.

In one global survey of energy efficiency, Japan still ranked fourth, behind the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. Just think if it ranked first……