Wind drifts out of Japan's green
vision By Dave Engler
In Japan, the country that hosted the
Kyoto Protocol and wrote the book on solar policy,
the wind-power industry has ground almost to a
halt. Among the culprits: policy, cost and
technology challenges. Yokohama's wind turbine,
one of the tallest in Japan, was meant to
symbolize a commitment to wind power, but now
seems to represent more of a dream than a reality
in a country where growth of the renewable has
slowed dramatically.
On a windy day in
Yokohama, 32 kilometers south of Tokyo, the lone
wind turbine turns steadily against the sky.
Flanked on one side by a US Army base, and with an
unobstructed view of the
bay,
the turbine is fenced off on a small perimeter of
land on the edge of the water.
Built in
2007 with government aid and Vestas Wind Systems
technology, the turbine stands 118 meters high. It
was built to be a symbol of the port city's
commitment to wind energy. But while the turbine
keeps turning, the country's commitment has
slowed.
According to the last assessment
by the Brussels-based Global Wind Energy Council,
Japan ranked a dismal 14th in terms of yearly
growth in wind capacity, with newly installed wind
power totaling only 139 megawatts in 2007. That
compares with 5.2 gigawatts - 38 times the
capacity - installed the same year in the United
States, and lags even further behind other
wind-power giants such as Denmark, Germany and
Spain.
Toshio Hori, president of the
Tokyo-based Green Power Investment Corp and
affiliated with the wind-power industry in Japan
for 20 years, blames Japan's renewable-energy
policy for the slow growth.
"Japan's
windpower industry is not growing," he said. "The
renewable targets the government has set for wind
power are tiny in comparison to other countries.
There are no incentives for companies to grow."
Japan's renewable targets have come under
fire recently as the country has struggled to meet
the requirements set by the Kyoto Protocol. Under
the terms of the treaty, Japan is supposed to cut
carbon-dioxide emissions by 6% from 1990 levels by
2010. But due to commercial growth over the last
decade, those levels have been rising instead of
falling. As alternatives to coal, the country has
looked mainly to nuclear power and, to a lesser
extent, solar. The case of wind in Japan is
instructive, as it shows how renewable energy can
stumble without proper government intervention.
It's especially significant given that the country
previously had been a green policy leader. Japan
invented the solar incentives used as a model for
similar programs in Germany and elsewhere, and its
strength in the solar industry often is cited as
an example of a key policy success.
Solar
power generation facility In contrast
with its history of policy leadership, Japan's
renewable targets look almost embarrassingly small
compared with other countries' policies. Targets
set by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
stipulate that 1.35% of total energy supply must
come from renewables, such as wind, solar and
biofuels, by 2010. The target inches up to 1.63%
by 2014.
Denmark, the most advanced
country in terms of wind-power capacity and
support policies, generates 20% of its energy from
wind. The Danes accomplished this goal through
heavy government subsidies and tax breaks over the
past 20 years.
Germany, the second-largest
country in terms of installed capacity, generates
6.3% of its energy from wind power. The Germans
have set their target for renewable energy at
12.5% by 2010. Spain has also strongly backed wind
energy with a goal of 20 gigawatts by 2010.
With global energy prices skyrocketing, a
policy that leaves out a potentially huge resource
deserves attention. Japan is especially vulnerable
as it imports a large percentage of its energy
supplies. By ignoring wind, Japan is missing out
on what could be a significant solution to rising
energy costs.
Iida Tetsunari, executive
director of the Tokyo-based Institute for
Sustainable Energy, believes Japan's dominant
electric companies are preventing the growth of
wind power. The country's 10 electric companies
are regional monopolies. The largest dominate the
areas of Tokyo, Chiba and Kansai and they leverage
significant political clout.
"They act as
regional monopolies, functional monopolies and
political monopolies," Iida said. "They are the
rule makers and they make an effort to exclude
wind power from their grid."
According to
Iida, utilities limit wind energy to just 2% to 3%
of the electricity flowing on the grid, and the
low renewable standards aren't requiring them to
take more. Wind farms make their money by selling
energy contracts to electric companies. When the
regional utilities don't agree to buy the full
amount of the electricity they generate,
developers are left in a bind.
Utilities
don't view wind as the perfect power. After all,
the electricity that wind-power projects supply
fluctuates depending on the wind's strength,
setting up a risk for power surges and outages. To
neutralize this problem, utility companies have
asked developers to store the energy created from
wind power in batteries that can be tapped when
needed, rather than to channel the energy directly
to the grid.
In an effort to appease
utilities, wind developers have begun to do just
that. Japan Wind Development Co and battery maker
NGK Insulators have partnered to install battery
accumulators at a wind-power site in the Aomori
Prefecture this year. NGK's sodium-sulfur
batteries store energy created when the wind blows
and dispatch the smooth energy to the grid during
peak demand periods.
Batteries are not
ready for wide-scale adoption, mainly because of
their price. They can double the cost of a
project, and it is unlikely project developers
will be able to pass these costs to the utilities.
Offshore wind developments are another
attractive, and possibly less costly, option. Air
movements are more powerful and more predictable
than on land, two factors that may help allay
utility concerns about power surges and capacity,
and offshore turbines can be located closer to
many main city centers, where the electricity is
used. Most wind farms in Japan today are in the
far north or south, where land is cheaper and less
inhabited, and none are near Tokyo.
European countries have been looking to
the sea for years. Japan too has experimented. Two
turbines have been in operation in the northern
island of Hokkaido, less than one kilometer off
the coast, since 2003, and the University of Tokyo
and Tokyo Electric are investigating the
possibility of an off-shore wind farm near Tokyo.
But Japan's geography complicates such
projects. The country is surrounded by deep water,
and deep-water wind-farm technology is still in
its infancy. Last year, Scotland installed two
87-meter-high wind turbines 25 kilometers off its
coast. The installation is the biggest project of
its kind in the world and still in the trial
stages.
Iida said similar plans for Japan
may be years off if they happen at all. Aside from
the expense (off-shore wind farms can cost two to
three times onshore projects), it must contend
with opposition from the politically powerful
fishing industry.
Looking
overseas Japanese wind companies have
been quick to adjust to these challenges by
expanding overseas. While growth in Japan has been
slow, global wind energy grew by 30% in 2007.
Tokyo-based Eurus Energy has 80% of its capacity
outside Japan, with only 304 megawatts of its
total 1,385 megawatts installed in its domestic
market.
Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries, the largest domestic manufacturer of
wind turbines, is targeting international markets,
with US sales far outstripping its business in
Japan. In May, the company received orders for
1.36 gigawatts worth of wind turbines from five US
firms, including Eurus Energy's US subsidiary,
Eurus Energy America, to be completed by 2009.
That is nearly equal to Japan's total installed
wind capacity of 1.49 gigawatts.
The Group
of Eight summit of leading economic countries will
convene this July in Japan, and
carbon-dioxide-emission targets for 2020 are
likely to be on the agenda. Environmentalists and
renewable-energy companies no doubt hope
international pressure will convince the country
to raise its targets.
But even if the
targets are revisited, wind power might not
benefit, given that the country has so far favored
nuclear and solar power. The government has
heavily subsidized nuclear plants, which generate
30% to 40% of the country's power, while solar
polices have helped it install the second-largest
amount of photovoltaic capacity in the world,
after Germany.
Some industry insiders
believe Japan may continue to rely on those
sources to meet emissions targets.
"I hope
that the [policy] changes," said Hori of Green
Power Investment, who like many market
participants is unsure of the future of wind power
in Japan. Until that happens, the lone wind
turbine in Yokahama will continue to turn over
Tokyo Bay, even as the air grows stale around the
country's renewables policies.
(This
article first appeared in GreenTechMedia.
Republished with permision of Japan Focus.
Copyright Japan Focus .)
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