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Sun setting on Japan's solar energy boom

49 Comments
By Anne Beade

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Guess the Clean Energy guys just are not paying the bribes that Dirty Energy is now a days.

24 ( +28 / -4 )

If ever there were proof needed that the Japanese government is insanely corrupt then this is it!

And

"Japan is also facing a shortage of land for new solar installations."

If this were true (it's not) then where are all the coal fired plants being built?

18 ( +25 / -7 )

Japan is also facing a shortage of land for new solar installations.

Bull! There is still plenty of unused totally usable space available all over the country, where solar panels could be installed. The problem is who is going to pay for the installation and upkeep! Installing solar panels here costs way too much.

I installed 30 panels on my house about 5 years ago, it cost us around 2.6 MILLION yen. We got in on the end of the subsidies offered by the government to private installations, and we received about 50,000円, as opposed to ten times that amount if we had installed them even 3 years previous to that.

We could be saving even more by going "all electric" as our local utility only requires that we install an electric water heater to be considered as such, but the heater we would have to install is one specifically supplied by the utility and it costs roughly 1 MILLION yen for the unit and installation.

16 ( +20 / -4 )

Hmmm, I wonder which government was in power when the Fukushima accident happened and started to push for more green energy and less on nuclear and coal. Oh yes, that is right, it was the DPJ, and now that Abe and his cronies are back, nuclear, coal and everything bad for the environment, but good for his business buddies is all coming back!

14 ( +18 / -4 )

I see empty parking spaces everywhere, if parking companies time Times has a sense or knack to make money, they'd cover their parking spaces with solar panels and start selling electricity.

21 ( +23 / -2 )

If ever there were proof needed that the Japanese government is insanely corrupt then this is it!

there was NEVER ANY proof needed mate.

9 ( +13 / -4 )

@Yubaru....good deal putting the panels on the house!!! Actually this is much more effective than building massive solar farms, etc. With panels on houses there are no transmission and distribution losses (which are significant) and with the advent of smart grid technology it is now much easier for the utility to manage. The initial feed in tariff amount was too high. I agree it should be high (encouraging this type of development) but I think it was around 52Yen/KWh. Cut 10 Yen off this, offer tax incentives, and allow bi-directional metering for residential systems and I think the residential market for solar could improve significantly. Also battery technology gets better every year so the homeowner could have the option to sell back to the grid or store power for use off hours, etc.

The electric power industry in Japan is corrupt in many ways. While most of Japan's industry has been subject to "outside" scrutiny the electric utilities have been in their own little world for decades. This is not limited to TEPCO but includes other utilities and major suppliers (companies starting with "H", or "T"). Sure, Fukushima Daichi brought international attention to the utilities in Japan and the advent of the NRC and some international oversight but the structural problems are fully entrenched and will take a long time to undo. I know everyone likes to beat on Abe (and yes he certainly has issues) but I think that the level of what is going on in the utility industry transcends Abe or whoever is in power.

The NAIIC report on Fukushima Daiichi, which called the triple meltdown an accident "made in Japan" was spot on. It focused on the accident itself and nuclear safety but I think this can be applied across the board to other aspects of the industry (such as some of those mentioned above....being forced to buy a water heater from the utility???)

Technically, the major issues with large scale solar installations is moving the power from the installation to the point of use. Kibousha's idea about empty parking lots is good if they are unobstructed by buildings, etc. I think the focus in Japan should be more on smaller scale installations.

Finally, for the past year or 2, international fuel prices have been quite low and the Yen has been strong so there has been little incentive to do anything. However OPEC's announcement (today) that they are cutting production could change things a bit. Also it is quite obvious the Japanese public and local governments are unwilling to just allow reactors to restart and the courts have upheld this. Also in April of this year access to the grid was liberalized (a big deal actually) so It will be interesting to see how things go moving forward.

12 ( +13 / -1 )

If there was two hours of daylight savings time, there would be more sun for electric.

-14 ( +6 / -20 )

kurisupisu

"Japan is also facing a shortage of land for new solar installations."If this were true (it's not) then where are all the coal fired plants being built?

do you know how much energy one coal fired plant produces versus the amount of energy from the same area of land through solar power? obviously not. I'm not in favor of dirty energy but your argument is way off the mark.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

@MsDelicious

Good thinking!

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Japan is also facing a shortage of land for new solar installations.

With Japans propensity to tear down houses and build new ones a simple law or subsidy to place solar on all new buildings (cheaper than fitting to existing buildings) would easily solve the problem.

We have solar and produce double what we use - it's a no brainer adding solar to residencial buildings.

9 ( +12 / -3 )

US President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to bring back coal ...

American presidents do not decide power sources for utilities or factories - they do themselves, and coal is just not economically viable in the US, being twice as expensive as gas and about 40% more expensive than wind power. No American utility - none - has any coal-powered generation plant slated to be built. I don't understand why the dynamics are different in Japan.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

The headline uses on inapropriate metaphor. The destruction of clean energy in Japan is not a natural process. It is been killed off by short sighted corporate greed.

12 ( +13 / -1 )

@Laguna,

Only because of the extreme regulations put on the coal industry not because there is no demand for coal.

-3 ( +4 / -7 )

Hypocrisy because year after year since 3/11 Japan is reducing any incentive to develop solar projects and the government gave to the utilities monopoly cartel the right to decide on the the acceptance or not to the grid for the a new energy provider applicant, so the system is a rigged as it could by the same old fat cats.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Elon Musk seems to be showing the way regarding the future of solar , by far the best solution I have seen http://www.solarcity.com/residential/solar-roof.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Trump let Abe know what's up. Too bad Japanese don't elect anyone with their own interests in mind

0 ( +3 / -3 )

@randomnator

Live downwind of a coal fired plant or solar array?

Do the breathing and let me know......,,

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Confusing facts. Of course I have solar panels, but generate 6 times what I use. I feel a little guilty. But...worlds biggest project? 5000 homes? Let's just cut the pension and restart the over 40year old NPPs. Decommissioning and disasters are not our problem, future generations can take the tab.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Fake news. I have run across the author on several forums over the past couple of years and no matter what Japan is doing, the glass is always half empty. If you do a google search, you can see that this and similar articles are shopped to solar industry blogs, environmental PR, and lobbying groups. Let's have a look.

"electricity providers have been obliged since 2012 to buy power generated from green suppliers," Wait. Stop right there. Although utilities have been OBLIGED since 2012, most had their own programs before then, started on their own initiative, offering higher FIT rates than those mandated by the government. Utilities have not been lagging society, they have been leading it. The author's characterization fits her narrative, but not reality.

"The pro-nuclear drive is supported by utilities, which complained about being forced to buy and distribute subsidised power," Actually, I have never heard utilities complain. Not once. I understand some technical problems they face in the far north and far south with solar firms demanding huge infrastructural changes to accommodate solar projects that will never be built. Any reasonable person would reject those projects, and any rate payer would too. But utilities have welcomed rooftop solar and projects that can be readily input into the grid. If you look carefully at the banner projects around Japan, you will see that they have been well planned and coordinated with utilities. The complainers are fly by night hucksters who want something for nothing. And pro-nuclear? Why would we NOT expect huge corporations to make their best effort to provide cheap, secure, clean energy to Japanese customers. Utilities have a fiduciary duty to support nuclear power.

"half a dozen large coal-fired power stations within about 100 kilometres (60 miles) of Tokyo, which Greenpeace has branded “simply insane”" Greenpeace has done so much to raise hysteria about nuclear power in Japan that it really needs to examine its SIMPLY INSANE role as a coal supporter in Japan. This is a smokescreen by Greenpeace to avoid culpability for turning Japanese public opinion from nuclear and toward coal. Greenpeace does not pay anyone's electricity bill, as far as I know. They want Japan to adopt their agenda and have taxpayers and rate payers pay for it.

And from a fellow solar installer, this seems to be mistake. " installed 30 panels on my house about 5 years ago, it cost us around 2.6 MILLION yen. We got in on the end of the subsidies offered by the government to private installations, and we received about 50,000円, as opposed to ten times that amount if we had installed them even 3 years previous to that."

Now wait a minute. About five years ago would be, let's say 2011. So your FIT would be coming directly from your utility. YES your subsidy was higher because your COSTS were higher. And YES, it (might have been) 10 times higher if it were 3 years earlier because systems COST a lot more. So what? You missed your gravy train. But so has everyone else. Because a GOOD POLICY is one where subsidies fall as costs and risks fall. Subsidies are supposed to allay risk and increase benefits. TODAY solar is below cost-parity all over Japan. The industry wants more subsidies (and they love articles like this), but solar can stand on its own. Subsidize it more by emphasizing social benefits if you want, but that is a decision society should make. It is not financially or scientifically justified.

Ugh. Don't be bamboozled by fake news, people. Japan's glass is half full. Compared to most countries, it has a high installed base of solar power and an excellent and coordinated system with government and utilities. Costs to people who install solar are dropping. Risks are dropping. Subsidies paid by taxpayers and ratepayers are dropping. That is how it should be. Perhaps the greatest benefit to someone installing solar today is that it will reduce electricity bills and reduce burdens on the grid at peak times. That is a GREAT OUTCOME. Have a look at the instability of policy in Australia, inconsistency in the US, and the thrashing going on in Spain and Germany, and you will see that Japan has done an excellent job with solar policy.

This from Laguna "I don't understand why the dynamics are different in Japan." Sure. Why would a country with no natural resources to speak of ... why would they make different choices than the US? Hmm. Baffles me. Maybe it is because natural gas prices just a couple years ago were up to four times what they were in the US. Maybe it is because the US puts sanctions on Iran, then Russia, cutting off huge oil and gas resources with the stroke of a pen. Those sanctions did nothing to the US economy, but they sent Japan scrambling for cheap non-nuclear resources. Or maybe the US can afford more gas production because it has not shut off its nuclear reactors, as Japan has. Japan has had its hand forced, and it has turned to coal. Stable cheap coal. Supplied by Australia and Canada and the US, who are not going to be sanctioning each other for the foreseeable future.

This is particularly humorous: "Bull! There is still plenty of unused totally usable space available all over the country, where solar panels could be installed." Yeah. Yubaru. How much of that do you own? You spend half your post complaining about how you got jerked out of a whole bunch of money based on your own decisions, but you are willing to tell everyone else what to do with their property. A somewhat calmer perspective would lead someone to agree with you that panels COULD be installed many places, but if the cost-benefit does not work out, your normative opinion is not warranted. A wider perspective leads one to observe that somebody has to PAY somehow to make something happen. Who is going to pay? The government? Well that is you, with higher taxes. The utilities? Well, that is rate payers. The customers? Sure. But they have to take the risk and install a system. But really. We all want it to be someone else, don't we? If someone else pays, solar is a great idea!

I've looked at solar from both sides now, from win and lose, and still somehow, its fake news perspectives that I recall. They really don't know solar. At all.

1 ( +7 / -6 )

If there was two hours of daylight savings time, there would be more sun for electric.

Uh, no. Solar panels will get the same amount of sun no matter how we fuss with our clocks.

7 ( +10 / -3 )

Its really disturbing to see how warped energy policy is becoming in this country. The move to rely more on coal is morally bankrupt and economically self defeating in the long term.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

....sun for electric for when we are awake. I wonder why my sentence got cut off. Oh well.

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

Solar takes up way too much space in terms of physical area. In 80% mountain and forest Japan, solar is probably not the most efficient clean energy source, also considering the fact that it's not very sunny above central Honshu. People might suggest clearing mountains and forests to make room for solar but that would be an ecological catastrophe, not to mention the massive emissions that would create.

The best option for Japan is massive offshore wind farms, mountain and valley wind farms, geothermal, and the new wave-power energy generation. All of this is extremely pricey, but it's gonna cost money to clean up emissions and get in line with the Paris accord, which we've committed to.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Great! Now all the anti-nuke protester can ride the electric methods of transportation to the rallies without feeling guilty.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

"Uh, no. Solar panels will get the same amount of sun no matter how we fuss with our clocks."

This comment ignores the OBVIOUS FACT that WHEN we get that electricity makes a difference. During the summer, if people make dinner at 6 pm, then setting the clock backward or forward is going to make a difference in how much of that stove top energy is going to come from solar. In other words, the poster is being clever in saying that the PHYSICS of power generation will not be changed by clocks, but humans do set their routines according to clocks, and those routines involve the use of greater or lesser amounts of electricity.

Still don't get it? How about this example? In some parts of Japan, the sun comes up in summer at about 4 am. Hey! Great! So we can generate a lot of solar power early in the morning! But nobody needs that power early in the morning. They probably won't cook breakfast until 7, so that early morning power is not valuable. It might be simply wasted or sold to the utility, which probably cannot use it. But if we set clocks earlier by three hours, then we could scramble our eggs using solar power and still use solar power for air conditioning later in the day. Unfortunately, we would then lose the ability to power TV sets with solar power at 7 pm, but that is how it goes.

"Solar takes up way too much space in terms of physical area. " Compared to nuclear, coal, wind, hydro, gas, oil.. sure... but that is not the point. It is better than nothing. Viewed from that perspective, solar makes a lot of sense. Most people, and I do mean most, have never set foot on the roof of their residence. Not even once. it is FREE real estate. It is already taxed. It just sits there. The article makes the point that there are plenty of other spaces that COULD be used for solar generation. That is also not the point. Clearly there are places where it is feasible or not, financially, architecturally, etc. Higher brain functions are needed to make those assessments case by case, so having a journalist or anyone else make uninformed blanket statements about solar policy is probably not the way to go.

". The move to rely more on coal is morally bankrupt and economically self defeating in the long term" Why? Please give your answer in light of Japan's postwar history, emphasizing events since 2005 and energy policy since the 1970s. Such strong statements demand strong evidence.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

Live downwind of a coal fired plant or solar array? Do the breathing and let me know......,,

you were talking about land areas, nice switch. I also said I wasn't in favor of dirty energy. Try reading to the end of a sentence.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

I think the following quote from the article says a lot more about issues in Japan than just solar power

Kyocera, which is behind the floating farm south of Tokyo, is building a solar plant on an abandoned golf course.

They do not say 'rice fields'.

An interesting article from the Nikkei (http://asia.nikkei.com/magazine/20161117-INCOMING/Tech-Science/Japanese-companies-work-on-ways-to-recycle-a-mountain-of-solar-panels) this week about recycling solar panels: a peak in the numbers needing replacement and recycling around 2030 or so. So another solar power boom around then? Maybe!

Lots of posts about real cost effectiveness being in having panels on rooves instead of in fields. Yes, but if so, don't forget the batteries to make it all really cost effective.

Let's face it - Japan is not one of the most ideal places in the world for any major power plant, and there has been a lack of common sense in their planning, focusing on economies of scale instead of things like where major fault lines lie.

I think all of this as a story is quite unfinished.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Solar takes up way too much space in terms of physical area

Industrial, commercial and residential rooftops?

Surface-level parking has already been proposed on the thread, and there are plenty of suburban factories, shopping malls and family restaurants that could have solar shelter for cars, charging EVs, powering buildings, and cutting drivers' idling at retail properties.

As others have mentioned, solar roofs should be a commodity product, and Elon Musk has already shown how aesthetically and economically compelling they can be, but intermediation and price gouging serves to make Japan a Galapagos backwater, unable to compete globally.

Donald Trump may be happy, but whither Japan Inc?

5 ( +5 / -0 )

As far as I can tell Japan is encouraging renewable energy, particularly at a prefectural and municipal level. I have always been opposed to coal and see it as the worst way to generate electricity. But given the hysteria surrounding nuclear energy in this country and practically all over the world what do you expect governments to do?

Nuclear energy is demonstrably better for the environment than gas, coal and oil, yet Japan has at the moment 44 idle power plants doing nothing with only seven potentially restarting in the future. Hyperbolic fearmongering by certain groups of the community is helping to destroy the earth that they apparently want to protect. Oh well.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

I've seen many large solar energy projects pop up around Tokyo and Chiba. I've also seen quite a few houses installing it as well since 2011. However, I am not surprised it is faultering and petering out with the government cutting subsidies. I have no doubt the reason they are cutting back subsidies is to gain favor for restarting their age if reactors and to get nuclear power back to near the 30% supply level it was before the quake. Nuclear power is not and nor will it ever be cheap and safe, especially with the corruption in the nuclear power industry of Japan. They should be increasing subsidies and investments in alternative energy, not reducing it.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

SpeedRacer seems to grasp what I was saying. Of course power for the evening telly can come from powered stored in batteries as well.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Look out of the window next time you arrive at Narita: the countryside is full of solar panels that were not there a few years ago.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Space for solar panels lacking? I was in Tokyo two months ago and Osaka last month. Both seem to have quite a few roofs and those roofs are on top of where most of the energy is needed.

I also saw a convenience store with solar panels on its roof and learned from the manager that they buy almost zero electricity from the utility (TEPCO); they put the panels on shortly after Fukushima.

I believe the 60% who approve of Abe and his cabinet must be very happy to know the nuclear power plants are coming back online soon. Screw the environment should another disaster occur, eh?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

What a messy news item. So everything new energy is "green" and that movement did not make it in Asia.

Well recently I bought a lightbulb 40W equivalent and it draws only 4.9W out of my batteries according to Toshiba. So I live in myisland house but still have to pay taxes to undo costly politics mistakes.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Japan is also facing a shortage of land for new solar installations. RUBBISH! there may be a lack of green feels to build on but what about all of the houses and office blocks? if people installed 2-3-4-5 or more panels on there houses the whole nation would contribute to suppling electricity, this would not only save the environment but the trade deficit would be reduced. just because oil is cheap now, its not going to be when it runs out. think long term not short term.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Rather than needing an invividual effort JP needs to want "green" or what "progess"?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

@randomnator

I'll spell it out for you! And I'm not attempting to put forward any argument.In Japan there is a lot of space not utilised, especially in country areas, on tops of mountains and in now non performing port areas around Japan. Some posters have also mentioned the abundance of roof space in major cities that have no use at all except to keep the rain off.

And your comment that coal is more efficient than solar is a non sequitur as you seem opposed to it anyway!

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Not enough space here nor reliable generation nor reliable battery storage to rely on solar in Japan. The more plausible would be geothermal, and offshore wind and wave generation

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The government and businesses always look everything as if it were a factory or something that can be metered. Like internet - hey it costs money to make electrons in an electron factory before we move them through wires and zeros and ones are very expensive to make...

solar = local

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Japan could be a world leader in this and other forms of renewable energy...sad!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Japan should continue its quest for renewable energy . . . Perhaps Japan's desert region as a good place for solar panel installation, also rooftops of buildings . . . . Japan is windy in many areas, and should think about using windmills for producing electricity (popular in California) . . . .

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Never "not enough room" for solar panels. Every roof top and skyscraper is a viable place to put panels. Even the sides of buildings that have a lot of exposure to sunlight. As well as miniature wind turbines on the tips and sides of buildings which increase energy gain. Combined with heat absorbing materials that could help generate a geothermal like energy as well. C'mon guys, it's so easy to combine all this stuff!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear? Doesn't get more FOOLISH than that, does it? And yet the electorate continues to vote for Abe...

2 ( +2 / -0 )

OK. Everyone is enjoying this exercise of noting all the places solar could be installed. It is a pretty useless pursuit.

Try this mental exercise. You are a 50 or 60 year old person or a company that is really just trying to make a payroll next month. Where are YOU going to put a solar installation that is going to give you a return on your money over about 10 years? YOU. Not someone else. You have to find a place and pay the rent on it and try to get your money back.

That really cuts it down, doesn't it? And then throw in the fact that if you have a flat roof, as many commercial enterprises do, then it was constructed to be a roof, not a platform, and mounting a ton or so of panels might not be allowed by the insurer or building regulations. I have run into this problem personally.

Ground installations present fewer problems in terms of construction, but the land has to be fenced in, generally, and it has to be paid for or rented. Then it has to be close enough to populations to be useful, but far enough away that it is not prohibitively expensive.

I see so many experts here who have never had to think the problem through... even once!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

dcog9065DEC. 01, 2016 - 11:17AM JST Solar takes up way too much space in terms of physical area. In 80% mountain and forest Japan, solar is probably not the most efficient clean energy source,

Excepting that most Japanese don't live in forests or in the mountains; they live in suburban and urban areas.

Japan missed the boat on this about 20 years ago when the building boom began in the largest cities. Solar energy doesn't have to be provided only by large "farms." It could easily have been mandated in all new residential and commercial construction where practical. That being said, Japan would be better off investing in wind farms.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@Jeff Huffman: I understand what you're saying but that would not even meet basic personal energy consumption requirements, let alone commercial, military, infrastructure, and industrial energy requirements which all use many times more than residential requirements. Do you think a few hundred panels on top of a factory will power it? Or a few dozen on top of a skyscraper? What happens with heavy cloud cover, the entire economy should stop? No, solar could only make up max 10-15% of the total energy mix in Japan even with 100% of houses having panels. Offshore wind and wave could likely power up to 50% or so, taking into account the success of Denmarks's wind farms. Geothermal could likely make up a significant amount, and the rest being nuclear would almost wipe out Japan's emissions and make the air the cleanest it's ever been. Make electric cars compulsory and introduce a carbon tax for industrials, and you may have the cleanest country on Earth

1 ( +1 / -0 )

55 speedracer, your right on the rented properties and age, but there are companies in the UK that give you the panels, but you get some of the electricity and the get the surplus, if Japan did this the 60+ would save money on there utility bills, and the company would have the headache of the installation laws, a bit of solar power a bit of thermal power and a bit of wind power all add up, we can't just rely on coal and oil, and nuclear power coal and oil is going to run out and its not good for the environment. and why not install insulation to some of the houses that would cut down on heating bills in the winter.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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