International Law

2010 Japan Energy Plan

By Karl-Friedrich Lenz

Under Article 12 of the Japanese Basic Act on Energy Policy of 2002 the Government is required to develop a Basic Energy Plan. The latest version is of summer 2010, available as a PDF-file at the website of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy.

See also this Yomiuri article about the expected effect the accident will have on nuclear power in Japan (hint: not helpful), where the authors report that the current Basic Plan calls for doubling the ratio of energy from nuclear and renewable from 35% in 2007 to 70% in 2030.

I am going to read that Basic Plan and report on parts relevant to my interest here.

The Plan starts out with a positive note for nuclear power on page 10, calling for new nuclear plants while obtaining the trust and understanding of the citizens. That latter task just got a whole lot more difficult. And the former will have to deal with long-time to possible permanent loss of the Fukuhima plant.

Then on page 21 the Plan calls for strengthening the energy safety of the whole East Asia region, since there are insufficient oil reserves there. That is of interest when discussing energy from the Gobi desert.

On page 23 the Basic Plan sets 10 percent share for renewable energy as a goal for 2020, half of the EU goal.

Pages 24 to 25 call for a feed-in tariff system for renewable energy. See this page at the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy for details of the program’s status.

On page 27 the Plan lays out some fundamental goals for nuclear energy. Nuclear energy should be advanced as a power source with the 3E (energy safety, environment, economic) advantages. They call for at least 9 new plants until 2020 and at least 14 until 2030, while also increasing utilization rates to 85% (2020) and 90% (2030) from a present level of 60%.

Page 29 discusses the need for PR and explaining efforts in the communities hosting sites of nuclear plants. That job just got a whole lot more difficult; strong additional safety measures like the “SkyControl” idea presented below seem to be essential under this aspect.

On pages 50 and 51 the Basic Plan calls for the necessary infrastructure to run hydrogen cars by 2015. The Plan sees the Hydrogen Economy as a goal, but says there is still much research needed to lower costs.

Full post as published by Lenz Blog on March 26, 2011 (boomark / email).