Post Fukushima, Japan now at a crossroads over energy direction
https://www.thenational.ae/business/post-fukushima-japan-now-at-a-crossroads-over-energy-direction-1.718332April 3, 2018
...All Japan’s 48 reactors were shut down between 2011 and 2012 after the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident. Five reactors have since resumed commercial operation after meeting revised regulatory standards. Twelve other reactors at six sites have been approved for restart, the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum said in November.
But a group advised by former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi is pushing for a bill calling for an “immediate halt†to Japan’s nuclear power sector to prevent a recurrence of the Fukushima disaster.
In a report last March, the US-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis [IEEFA] said Japan's energy challenges are delineated by sluggish economic growth, a shrinking population and declining electricity demand, down 11.5 per cent from its 2010 peak of 1,140 terawatt hours....
...As total electricity generation drops, solar photovoltaic [solar PV] generation has the potential to account for 12 per cent of Japan’s electricity mix by 2030, up from 4 per cent at present. Japan was the second largest installer globally of solar PV from 2013-2015. But with generous feed-in-tariffs that supported this expansion coming to an end, new policy support by the Japanese government will be required to perpetuate solar growth, the IEEFA report says....
