Losing Momentum Announced the Phasing out of Nuclear Power
Review Japan
The end of nuclear power? Directly after the tsunami in 2011 the Japanese government Losing momentum announced the phasing out of nuclear power. That decision is In the World Smart Energy Week at the end of February in Tokyo, the now wobbling. Photos (2): dpa Japanese wind power industry showed what they would be capable of if allowed to. Unfortunately, the reality is different and the sector there is staying well behind its potential.
apan‘s wind power industry leads a meagre exis- High tariff, difficult conditions tence, despite big names such as Hitachi and JMitsubishi. At the end of 2013, 2.7 GW of wind At a first glance, wind power doesn’t seem to have power capacity had been installed in the country, particularly bad conditions even. The tariff for wind making up 0.5 % of Japanese electricity generation. power electricity fed into the grid on land is Installation figures for 2013 itself were just 50 MW, 16 ¤-ct/ kWh, while the tariff for offshore wind elec- the lowest growth since 2003. Dynamic development tricity is to be set any time now. Japan also has three it is not. companies – Mitsubishi, Japan Steel Works and Additionally: in 2003 the majority of electricity Hitachi – which manufacture wind turbines. As ex- came from several dozen nuclear power plants. Slight- pected, we can see a feature of the Asiatic market ly cynically it could be said that eight years before here; manufacturers are often large, financially strong Fukushima, Japanese electricity was almost exclusive- conglomerates, with a product portfolio ranging from ly nuclear, and wind power was not really a necessity. cars to laptops and supertankers. This technological But 2013 was totally different; three years after the range reduces the risk that one line of business could Fukushima catastrophe, for a short period all 48 Japa- pull the others down with it. nese nuclear power plants were offline. To a degree Three things are giving the sector a headache, like no other country in the world, with its low miner- however. Firstly, Japan is an extremely densely popu- al and energy resources Japan has no other choice but lated country, with 330 inhabitants/m2 as opposed to systematically expand the use of renewable energy to Germany’s 230 inhabitants/m2. This leads to ac- sources. Yoichi Kimura, Director-General of Energy ceptance problems and clashes with nature protec- Conservation and Renewable Energy at the Japanese tion. Secondly, Japanese bureaucracy has a tradition Ministry of Economy, stressed in his opening speech going back several centuries. The Japanese complain at the World Smart Energy Week in Tokyo: “There will of a flood of rules, regulations and administration not be any one all-powerful energy source which can guidelines. Thirdly, the topology of the country is not meet all demand.” It will be much more a case of build- exactly welcoming to the operators of wind turbines. ing up an acceptable energy mix. The low growth of The difficult topology makes unusual solutions wind power in Japan is not what should be expected necessary. At Hitachi they are dealing with the prob- as a result of this statement, however. lem of installation in mountainous terrain by using a
10 Sun & Wind Energy 4/2014 downwind concept. This utilises a leeward turbine with a special rotor design. This aims to make better use of the updraughts on slopes. Unusual solutions can also be found amongst Japanese offshore technology, where there is a sur- prisingly strong showing by “floating turbines”. Like many coastal countries, Japan is not as blessed with shallow coastal waters as the North Sea neighbours are. Toda Corporation and a further five consortium members have constructed a floating turbine based on the spar buoy concept. Marubeni Corporation has built the prototype of a semi-submersible. The 2 MW turbine used in both projects was supplied by Hitachi. Jörn Iken
Seen at the Wind Energy Expo 2014 in Tokyo. One cannot deny the creativity of Japanese industry.
“We are designing our own technology”
Yoshinori Ueda heads the International Committee Heavy Industries, Japan Steel Works and Hitachi of the Japan Wind Power Association (JWPA). Corporations. Now Toshiba is also joining them and SUN & WIND ENERGY spoke with him about the has bought up a local Korean manufacturer. The situation of wind power in Japan. three manufacturers have only got a small market share when viewed globally, but in Japan it is large. S&WE: Mr Ueda, how tough a time is wind power This is naturally because of services, which are sim- having in Japan? ply easier for home companies to organise. Yoshinori Ueda: It requires a lot of work to get planning approval. You have to get assessments S&WE: Are Japanese companies in the running with from different bodies, such as the Chamber of high-tech? Agriculture. The whole process can take up to a year Ueda: Toray is one of the largest CFRP processors in and approval might still be denied at the end. the world and has now acquired the American wind power supplier Zoltek. Toray thus has access to the S&WE: Has anything changed since the reactor customers Gamesa and Vestas. catastrophe in Fukushima? Yoshinori Ueda Photo: JWPA Ueda: Not so far. Things will take time. The govern- S&WE: It is noticeable that the big conglomerates ment wants to change the legal basis, but as I have are dominating the wind power sector in Japan. How said before, there are very strong associations here are these companies going about doing business in which fight for their interests. Then there is also the the sector? difficult topology. Japan is thin and mountainous, Ueda: The strategies depend very much on the indi- which make sites for wind turbines difficult. The flat vidual companies. Mitsubishi has now founded a areas are either farmland or nature protection areas. joint venture with Vestas in order to join the offshore We are working on reducing the restrictions cover- business. Hitachi has developed a downwind tur- ing these areas. But there is also a lot of regional bine together with Fuji Heavy Industries: a unique unacceptance, also supported by celebrities. And technology with a lot of potential. It is especially the media of course prefers to jump on the story suitable for sites in mountainous terrain. that wind turbines emit unhealthy infrasound. S&WE: It is surprising for Europeans to hear of S&WE: Are matters also so tough for offshore floating turbines in connection with offshore wind wind power? power in Japan. In Europe it is a niche technology Ueda: The biggest problem there is fishing rights. but here it is all the rage. How come? The fisheries sector is a large branch of the economy Ueda: It is a practical solution for us, although the and its influence is correspondingly big. costs are very high. The Europeans set the stand- ards both in the onshore industry and in the still S&WE: Is there actually a closed supply chain for new offshore field. It is thus very difficult to become wind turbines in Japan? established there. It is like a large castle holding off Ueda: There are windmills or components from other suppliers. So we are developing our own tech- foreign companies like Siemens, Vestas or GE. We nology and thus setting our own standards. have three manufacturers in Japan: Mitsubishi The interview was conducted by Jörn Iken.
Wind Edition 11