Renewable energy coming to the forefront

In the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident resulting from the Tohoku Earthquake on March 11, a review of Japan’s energy policy from a renewed perspectivehas begun. Japan has encountered difficulties in continuing with its conventional energy policy of constructing and expanding nuclear power plants. “Non-dependence on nuclear power” has come up as a new key political term, and its materialization is now being sought.

In the process of this materialization, it will be difficult to depend on fossil fuels again. Since the turn of this century, oil depletion has come to be perceivedwith a sense of reality. In future, oil prices are likely to increase even further. Conventional types of natural gasresources are said to amount to just as much as oil. Although it is assumed that coal will still be minable for more than 100 years, it generates more carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, than other fossil fuels. We may have no short-term choice but toshift toward fossil fuels in order to achieve non-dependence on nuclear power, but this choice won’t be permitted for long.

For this reason, renewable energy has been attracting attention. Renewable energy is a type of energy whose resource base is renewed daily by means ofastronomical energy generated by the sun, earth and moon. Specifically, solar photovoltaic, wind power, geothermal and biomass (biological resources) are among the typical energy sources. The forms of use include both the conversion into electricity and the use of heat.

What can we draw from research on “Energy Sustainable Zones”?

The supply of renewable energy is not very large at present. ChibaUniversity’s Kurasaka Environmental Research Laboratory has been engaged in research on “Energy Sustainable Zones” in collaboration with the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies, an incorporatednonprofit organization, since 2005. This research estimatesthe supply of renewable energy and regional energy demand for different municipalities in Japan. Regional energy demand refers to the energy demand in civilian and food production sectors. In plain terms, it means the energy demand required for people to continue living somewhere. According to the latest preliminary figures (as of the end of March 2010) published on October 17, renewable energy accounts for about 3.5% of the total regional energy demand in Japan.

Although not in so large a proportion on a nationwide scale, renewable energy has a greater possibility of use as a future energy source in some regions. According to the current estimations, as of the end of March 2010, 60 municipalities in Japanrely on renewable energy for 100% of their regional energy demand (100% energy sustainable zones). On a prefectural level, 8 prefectures, Oita (27.5%), Akita (19.8%), Toyama (18.4%), Aomori (14.7%), Kagoshima (13.3%), Nagano (12.2%), Shimane (11.9%), and Kumamoto (10.7%), depend on renewable energy for not less than 10% of their regional energy demand.

Compared with the previous year, as a consequence of the fixed price purchase scheme of November 2009 for surplus electricity from solar power generation systems, solar power generation supply increased by not less than 30% between March 2009 and March 2010, while power supply from renewable energy sources increased by 6％. However, as a result of small hydropower generation (not more than 10,000 kW) and geothermal use decreasing slightly, and solar heat use increasing slightly, the total domestic renewable energy supply increased by only 3.7% (it increased by 2.3% in FY2008). At this rate of increase, it will take 20 years for renewable energy supplies to increase two-fold.

Effects of the Feed-in Tariff Law for Renewable Electric Energy

The Act on Special Measures concerning the Procurement of Renewable Electric Energy by Operators of Electric Utilities (Feed-in Tariff Law for Renewable Electric Energy) wasenacted in August 2011. However, this law doesn’t provide an introductory target for the whole country. In response to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident resulting from the Tohoku Earthquake, it is necessary to set a national target for the introduction of renewable energy in order to develop renewable energy into one of this country’s core energy systems as soon as possible.

As stated above, the current rate of increase in the use of renewable energy is insufficient from the viewpoint ofturning it into a core energy source, considering the fact that it will take 20 years to double the supply, etc. In addition to the fixed price purchase system already introduced under the Feed-in Tariff Law for Renewable Electric Energy, the purchase price and purchase period will be determined with a view to implementing measures by July next year. The purchase price and purchase period should be determined in such a manner as to accelerate the introduction of renewable energy dramatically.

While the Feed-in Tariff Law for Renewable Electric Energyobliges the operators of electric utilities to connect certified renewable energy facilities to the grid, it provides that the operators may refuse to connect to the grid “if the connection has the potential to bring about obstacles to the smooth procurement of power supplies” (Article 5, Paragraph 1 (2)). I believe that efforts on the side of the transmission network administrators are indispensable to the large-scale introduction of renewable energy sources, as well as to make them core energy sources, and the present situation doesn’t permit us to continue with conventional methods of energy use. From this perspective, the government should ensure the implementation of obligatory provisions forconnecting renewable energy facilities to the grid, so that operators will not shelter behind the above-mentioned Article 5 and refuse to connect them.

Necessity to introduce renewable energy on the initiative of local authorities

Different types of renewable energy sources should be selected for each region, taking into account the climatic differences. The municipal authorities need to implement measures for the introduction of renewable energy in a proactive way in order to ensure that adequate renewable energy sources are selected according to the regional characteristics.

Of the two types of renewable energy sources, electricity and heat, the Feed-in Tariff Law for Renewable Electric Energy specifies only electricity as the target for promotion activities. The research on “Energy Sustainable Zones” described above has found that renewable heat use accounts for about 20% of thedomestic renewable energy supply. It follows that the potential of heat, as an energy source, is considered to be high, and the use of such renewable thermal energy, in particular, needs to be soughton a regional scale. While electricity can be shared among a wide range of regional users via the transmission network, the use of thermal energy needs to be matched with the regional conditions.

For these reasons, regionally-based policies for introducing renewable thermal energy, such as requiring building owners to design buildings which use renewable energy sources, including solar photovoltaic, solar heat, geothermal, and biomass heat, for a specified proportion of the energy demand, and promoting the construction of conduit lines with heat supplyfrom renewable energy sources in mind in city planning projects will be required.

Establishing regionally-based energy policies

In the past, there has been widespread recognition in Japan that the responsibility for energy policies lies with the government. Therefore, the current basic local authorities lack both the know-how and financial resources to implement energy policies.

It may be beneficial to create a framework for establishing a regional energy office for each prefectural block, and allowing the NPOs concerned to participate in the operation and collect information on related businesses, technology and support, in order to compensate for the lack of know-how in municipalities. The Japanese government should establish a Revenue Support Grant system for initiating renewable energy policies to allow municipalities to transfer personnel to regional energy offices to acquire know-how. If part of the budget set aside for the construction of new nuclear power plants could be allocated, it would be sufficient to cover the cost of employing at least one expert for each basic local authority.

In addition, the government should consider establishing a framework for the redemption of the principal and interest on local government loans, whereby basic local authorities can issue local authority bonds for renewable energy so that the introduction of such energy can be promoted with the mobilization of regional and local financial resources.

Furthermore, it is necessary to ensure that renewable energy sources can be utilized as emergency power sources for the community at large, in order to enhance the value of renewable energy in localities. In the case of the latestearthquake disaster, though geothermal and wind power generation plants were operating, the generated electricity couldn’t be used in the areas where they were located, leading to blackouts even in energy sustainable zones. Renewable energy sources need to be regarded as “community power sources”, and the current system needs to be reviewed so that the electricity generated in each locality can be used there in an emergency.

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