Japan to make renewables top power source by 2040
By Hiroshi HIYAMA
Tokyo (AFP) Dec 17, 2024
Japan wants renewables to be its top power source by 2040 in a push to reduce dependence on coal and gas and become carbon neutral by mid-century, government plans showed Tuesday.
Thirteen years after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, nuclear power is also projected to play a major role in helping to meet growing energy demand from AI and chip factories.
The government had already said it wants the world’s fourth-largest economy to be carbon-neutral by 2050.
Under the new plans, renewables such as solar and wind are expected to account for 40 to 50 percent of electricity generation by 2040.
That marks a jump from last year’s level of 23 percent, and a previous target for 2030 of 38 percent.
Resource-poor Japan “will aim to maximise the use of renewable energy as our main source of power”, said the draft Strategic Energy Plan released on Tuesday.
Government experts were reviewing the plan and it will later be presented to the cabinet for approval.
But Japan is also aiming to avoid heavily relying on one energy source, “ensuring both a stable supply of energy and decarbonisation”, the plan read.
Nearly 70 percent of Japan’s power needs in 2023 were met by power plants burning coal, gas and oil, almost all of which the country has to import.
The government wants that figure to fall to 30 to 40 percent by 2040. The previously announced 2030 target was 41 percent, or 42 percent when hydrogen and ammonia are included.
– Nuclear –
The government’s new plans forecast a 10 to 20 percent jump in overall electricity generation by 2040, from 985 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) in 2023.
The plans, released by the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, no longer foresee reducing Japan’s reliance on nuclear power “as much as possible” — a goal set after the catastrophic 2011 nuclear disaster.
After the tsunami-triggered Fukushima meltdown, the government pulled the plug on nuclear power plants nationwide.
But it has gradually been bringing them back online, despite a public backlash in some places, as it seeks to cut emissions.
It expects all of its existing reactors to be in operation by 2024, as well as possibly new ones.
Nuclear accounts for about 20 percent of Japan’s energy needs under the 2040 targets, around the same as the current 2030 target.
That would mean more than double the 8.5 percent of overall power generation that nuclear provided in 2023.
Japan like many countries sweltered through record-breaking summer temperatures this year.
Geopolitical concerns affecting energy supplies, from the Ukraine war to unrest in the Middle East, is another reason behind the shift to renewables and nuclear, the draft said.
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