Japan’s struggle over its energy future was on display over the last two days as the government okayed restarting operations at two nuclear power plants while also approving an ambitious renewable energy feed-in tariff in which utilities will pay a premium for electricity generated by solar, wind, and geothermal power.
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Japan
Japanese officials say they may have to scrap long-term targets for carbon emissions reductions as a consequence of moving away from nuclear power in the aftermath of last year’s Fukushima disaster.
According to the Japan Times, government officials this week conceded that goals to cut carbon
The traffic lights are still blinking in Odaka town, north-western Japan, but few cars pass through these deserted intersections. Frozen in time after being hit by the triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami and meltdowns in the nearby Fukushima Dai’ichi nuclear plant, tables are still laid in partially-collapsed restaurants and
Debris from last year’s tsunami in Japan, including some potentially toxic materials, is increasingly being discovered along the Alaska coastline.
Since January, millions of pieces of debris have washed ashore along the Alaska coast, from soccer balls and buoys to motorcycles and large drums
Japan shut down its last working nuclear power station last weekend, culminating — at least for now — a national shift away from nuclear energy in the aftermath of last year’s Fukushima disaster.
The shutdown of the No. 3 Tomari reactor in Hokkaido will leave the country without nuclear power
One reader recently commented:
Judging the risks (associated with a certain energy technology) is hard because it’s about making guesses about the unknown. … In a way it’s easier to predict that the sun will continue to shine than to
The tsunami that devastated Japan in March 2011, and which was followed by a tragic nuclear power accident at Fukushima, was the second biggest tragedy the country ever faced. The biggest was Hiroshima. Last year, 19,000 people died. In Hiroshima the death toll was 80,000 people on the day of the bombing.
Japan’s nuclear disaster last year was more than a large-scale tragedy: it was a wake-up call to the dangers of nuclear power. Germany responded swiftly and decided to pull the plug on its reactors. All over the world a new wave of anti-nuclear sentiment emerged.
Now a consortium of more than ten Japanese
In a Post-Fukushima Daichii World, Countries Work to Fill “the Energy Gap” Without Nuclear
written by Susan Gladwin
Tick tock, tick tock… The ticking sound that our friends in Germany might be hearing is the countdown to 2022, the year in which the country has pledged to be completely nuclear free.
Meanwhile, halfway across the globe, Japan is still dealing with the aftermath of the meltdown at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility. The disaster greatly damaged public confidence in the safety of nuclear power, leading many countries to question their own commitment to nuclear power.
As Germany, Japan, and other countries seek to phase out nuclear power, they need to design strategies for filling the “energy gap” created by nuclear power’s absence. Renewable energy sources provide the clearest, cleanest path for filling this gap, and many different forms of renewables currently exist as viable options.
Germany-based TimberTower develops massive, easily assembled wooden towers that can be used as the base for wind turbines, much the way wood was used as the foundation for windmills for many centuries. More flexible, renewable and easier to manufacture and produce than metal turbines, the wooden towers make sense for a forest-rich region.
Clean technology company SunPods Inc.—headquartered in San Jose, Calif.—designs and manufactures modular solar array units that help make solar power more accessible and affordable. Unlike conventional customized ground-mounted solar arrays that require extensive onsite assembly and construction, SunPods (which stands for “Sun Power on Demand”) are configured and built in a factory before being delivered to virtually any site — a process that reduces installation time by up to 85 percent, allowing sunny regions to readily harvest the solar power available to them.
Tidal power presents another option for renewable energy for countries with available coastline. IT Power—based in Bristol, UK—is developing an innovative tidal energy device that uses oscillating horizontal hydrofoils instead of traditional rotating blades to generate renewable energy. This pioneering approach offers many advantages over existing tidal stream technology by maximizing the area that can be swept—and hence the power captured—in a given depth of water.
Wind, solar, tidal power, and other renewables all have a role to play in helping countries seeking to move away from nuclear achieve their energy goals. How these countries fill “the energy gap” will be a bellwether for others working to diversify their energy mix.
As the dire news continues to leach out of Fukishima, the silver lining in its nuclear cloud is that renewable energy technologies, despite their daunting start-up costs, are receiving renewed scrutiny.
Make no mistake – given the trillions of dollars invested over the last five decades in nuclear
In the wake of Japan’s natural disasters and nuclear spill-out, the country’s prime minister Naoto Kan announced that it would look for renewable energy alternatives to power the country.
In line with that previous announcement, AFP reports that the country is expected to announce at the G8
New data released by NASA shows that the atmosphere above eastern Japan was flooded with electrons and heated dramatically in the days before the devastating March 11 earthquake.
According to scientists from the Goddard Space Flight Center, the total electron content in
In response to the nuclear crisis triggered by an earthquake followed by a tsunami that devastated the country on March 11, Japanese prime minister Naoto Kan said the country will revise its energy policy to add alternative energy sources such as solar, wind and biomass, besides putting more
In the recent weeks after Japan was ravaged by one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history and the tsunami that resulted, Fukushima has been used around the world as a rallying cry for those against the further development of nuclear power and in favor of renewable energy. While one energy crisis has been going on in Japan, however, there is one green energy story