Comments on: Japan: a beacon for weary solar makers

By: kevinmeyerson

kevinmeyerson — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 07:56:15 +0000

Ucilia,

You are correct. Japan, despite the myth of being a “small, resource-poor nation” as many Japanese believe, is a large and renewable energy resource rich nation.

Regarding size, Japan is slightly larger than Germany in terms of land mass, and if one includes the vast oceans of Japan’s EEZ, the nation is one of the largest in the world.

Japan has enormous geothermal, wind, solar, wave, small & medium hydro, biomass potential, as well as the technical and manufacturing prowess to lead the world in each area.

Japan also has enormous untapped potential for energy efficiency improvements. One glaring example is the utter lack of any building energy efficiency standards such as Germany’s EnEV or others. Huge amounts of energy are wasted by inefficient buildings in this supposedly ‘advanced’ nation.

Also on the efficiency stage is Japan’s untapped industrial waste heat which could be used to warm entire cities and towns in much of the country. Waste heat is also available at the county’s tens of thousands of hot springs and is not used for the most part.

Japan currently has nearly all of its nuclear plants shut down and it will be difficult if not impossible to restart them for a variety of political and safety related issues. This has lead to no power shortages in the country over the past year and half.

Although it is not a good long term solution, the country is making due with fossil fuel generation as the renewable energy boom begins. Within a few short years, Japan can rapidly grow its renewable energy power generation while improving energy efficiency to lower consumption. This is Japan’s realistic and forward looking energy policy solution.

By: Ucilia Wang

Ucilia Wang — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:25:49 +0000

I don’t think importing fossil fuel-based energy is a good answer. Solar isn’t the only form of renewable energy that Japan can produce. The country also still has a fleet of nuclear power plants that it can utilize. It fouled up with its responsibilty to operate Fukushima safely. It could do a lot better in that regard.

By: Karen Cooper

Karen Cooper — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 05:19:59 +0000

It’s great to see Japan embracing solar energy, but the reality is that Japan has neither the land area nor the solar resource to do other than “tinker around the edges” of their massive need for zero carbon energy. Not only do they need renewable energy on a vast scale but they also need it in storable format to address the age old problem of intermittency. Australia has the answer for Japan in the form of Renewable LNG. This concept involves gasifying the vast solar resources of WA’s Pilbara and then exporting that renewable methane via the existing LNG infrastructure on the coast of the Pilbara. The technology to gasiy renewable energy exists in Germany (electrolysis plus Sabatier reactors) and plans are in place to deploy this technology in the Pilbara see:

http://challenge.ecomagination.com/ct/ct_a_view_idea.bix?c=A5FA89C1-FA3C-445E-A9BC-21288018908D&idea_id=93C110AB-19C7-497A-A65D-CA9034F693D0#comments