Fukushima province commits to renewable future

• 10 years ago (2014-02-06)
• Junior Isles

Asia 892 Nuclear 659 Renewables 776

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Japan’s Fukushima province, still suffering in the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, has said that it will commit to 100 per cent renewable power generation by 2040 through a variety of local community initiatives.

The announcement made at a community power conference goes strongly against Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s agenda to reboot nuclear power throughout the country.

“The Japanese government is very much negative,” said Tetsunari Iida, director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies in Japan. “Local government like the Fukushima prefecture or the Tokyo metropolitan government are much more active, more progressive compared to the national government, which is occupied by the industry people.”

Fukushima currently gets around 22 per cent of its energy from renewable sources. In November, a new 2 MW offshore wind turbine began operation 12 miles off the Fukushima coast, and two more 7 MW turbines are at the planning stage. The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has said that total offshore wind capacity may reach up to 1000 MW.

“Fukushima is making strides toward the future, step-by-step,” Yuhei Sato, Governor of Fukushima, said at the turbine’s opening ceremony. “Floating offshore wind is a symbol of such a future.”

A 26 MW solar power station has just broken ground in the prefecture, and Japan’s solar market is booming far more than analysts’ 2013 predictions, thanks to a very generous government feed-in tariff (FiT) launched shortly after the nuclear shutdown.

A Renewable Energy Village (REV) with 120 solar panels and plans for wind turbines has even begun to grow in Fukushima on contaminated farmland surrounding the devastated nuclear plant itself.

“There’s still a long way to go in Japan because the official government position is still very pro-nuclear, so it would be naïve to say this is an easy way, that we just need to set an example and other regions will follow,” Stefan Schurig, Director of the Climate and Energy Department of the World Future Council, said at the community power conference.

The future of nuclear power in Japan has greatly divided opinion, with former Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa running for Tokyo mayor on an anti-nuclear platform. A September 2013 survey showed that 53 per cent of Japanese people want to see nuclear power phased out gradually, while 23 per cent want it withdrawn immediately.