Quick Take: Pity poor Japan. They’ve never had much in fossil fuels, so they migrated to nuclear for electric power generation. Then the Fukushima disaster pulled the rug out from under nuclear, necessitating a head-long rush to renewables plus demand-side management. But integrating renewables at scale requires improvements in the grid, improvements that take time. We know from places such as Denmark and Germany that it can be done, but Japan’s utilities are now pleading for more time.
Is your utility prepared for renewables at scale? It may not happen for a few years. Or it may be accelerated by unexpected events. (Like an EPA regulation? Like a price on carbon? Like a dramatic drop in solar costs?) Japan’s woes are a warning to all of us. – By Jesse Berst
Japan’s electric utilities are putting the brakes on renewable energy, reports Daniel Cusik at EENews.net. Solar power is creating an oversupply problem for some regions while stressing the grid.
Five of the country’s 10 major utilities have announced they will no longer accept new renewable energy for the time being until they can strengthen their grid.
In the wake of Fukushima, the Japanese government adopted a generous feed-in tariff to encourage renewable energy. The result, says Cusik, “has been a glut of new mostly solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays coming online over the last 24 months.” And no wonder — current feed-in tariffs, excluding taxes are 29 cents per kilowatt-hour for solar PV for large customers and 34 cents residential customers. And those high prices are guaranteed for 10-20 years!
The high tariffs have fueled 11,000 MW of new solar capacity since 2012 with another 72,000 MW in the pipeline. But Japanese energy experts say the surge in solar power threatens to overwhelm the country’s transmission and distribution systems, which serve 10 distinct distribution areas and are not bound together by a robust transmission system.
Jesse Berst is the founder and Chief Analyst of SGN and Chairman of the Smart Cities Council, an industry coalition.
