nuclear-news

As he drives around this large prefecture, teaching schoolchildren how to make rudimentary photovoltaic cells, the 57-year-old cofounder of an umbrella of not-for-profit sustainability organizations advertises his optimistic vision.

But current reality is very different. The landscape here still bears the scars of a 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent nuclear reactor meltdown. Piles of black bags containing contaminated topsoil litter hillsides; display panels along an expressway show high radioactivity readings; and some villages remain ghost towns, largely off-limits to residents.

“I want people to know that the technology, we can make it, and then also we can make by ourselves the energy … [and] create the society without nuclear plants,” Shimamura explained through a translator.

Local officials endorse his plan, in theory. They too want Fukushima to get all its energy from renewables by 2040. Solar panels are already visible on rooftops, in backyards and open spaces, while green enterprises and research institutes are encouraged to locate there. Nor is the prefecture is alone in its hope to use the tragedy as the catalyst for change. In opinion polls, a majority of Japanese citizens consistently support the goal of abandoning nuclear power while harnessing more renewable energy. Former prime ministers, leading businessmen and a one-time nuclear industry executive are among those urging rapid transformation.

Proponents now argue the national energy landscape of Japan has already been altered irreversibly, but that progress could be expedited. “Now I know that without nuclear energy we can still carry on people’s lives and also the Japanese economy,” former Prime Minister Naoto Kan told Al Jazeera. “There are obstacles but in the long term … there will be more renewable energy.”

But a survey of the complex landscape of Japan’s power industry also reveals a complicated picture remains, with entrenched corporate and government interests resisting a full embrace of renewable energy sources. ……..

The [solar feedin] tariff has achieved some of its aims; by April 2015, Japan had added nearly 88 GWs of renewable energy capacity, though only around a fifth was operational. Meanwhile, solar generation contributed to about 10 percent of the peak power supplies in Japan last summer, equivalent to more than 10 nuclear reactors.

However, growth has come almost exclusively in solar. Other renewables have barely budged, due to overly long and stringent permitting processes, according to analysts. And with tariff rates falling, they note solar growth may slow now too.

Furthermore, Japan’s utility companies have begun blocking access to their still-monopolized grids, claiming they are overwhelmed and solar supply is unreliable, which led the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to review and alter aspects of the scheme, creating further uncertainty.

………..Japan is one of a few advanced economies without a fully deregulated energy market: regional utilities monopolize power supply. Among other problems, it also lacks a single national grid; instead, the east operates at 50 Hz, the west at 60 Hz, with conversion capacity limits badly exposed after Fukushima.
“[We are] a very rich country, we have technology, but we don’t have any tools to deploy renewables,” said Mika Ohbayashi, director of the Japan Renewable Energy Foundation (JREF), established in 2011 by Masayoshi Son, one of the country’s wealthiest men.

Long overdue reforms are finally underway, with the gradual introduction of electricity market competition. Residential power customers will be able to choose a provider for the first time later this year, and a total unbundling of the system should happen by 2020. “The transmission system has to be neutrally managed,” Ohbayashi added. “It has to be very much separated from power generation.”

Other Japanese inefficiencies, such as in construction, also stop solar from expanding. Comparisons show Germany, a global leader in solar power, has half Japan’s panel installation costs, despite higher labor rates. “You can sell the power for more money here, but it costs more to build projects,” said Franklin………

In 2012 the longtime incumbent Liberal Democratic Party of Japan ousted the Democratic Party of Japan, after three years in charge, immediately altering the energy landscape. The powerful nuclear industry, frozen in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, has since reasserted itself. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe allowed the first reactor to be turned back on last year and has announced nuclear power will account for over 20 percent of the nation’s needs by 2030, with renewables making up closer to 25 percent……….

Critics also claim the so-called “nuclear village” — a term applied to the various intersecting groups with an interest in the industry — has deliberately thwarted renewables progress, through things like grid access refusal and misrepresenting costs.

“[There’s] a community that gets profit from nuclear energy,” Kan, the former prime minister, told Al Jazeera. “In order to protect their right, they’re trying strongly to revive nuclear energy. They are strongly against the progress of renewable energy.”…………http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2016/1/23/japan-solar-energy-nuclear-fears.html