TOKYO -- As the world witnessed record heat this summer and rain disasters become more frequent, thousands of people joined a climate protest event here on Sept. 18, calling for a society powered 100% by renewable energy with stricter climate policies and no nuclear power.
Japan could rely on hydro - but the natural beauty of their country would be destroyed by dams (and there would be a lot less farmland). nuclear is really their only sustainable option. they could stop importing plastic - but buh bye tech if they do that, and that would crash, then erase their economy… and they are very deep into international debt as it is, so that will never happen.
the reality is that the Japanese have literally no choice but to maintain the status quo
Japan has one of the most interesting energy situations of the world.
No domestic fossil fuels, so they rely on imports.
Bad solar and wind potential.
Good geothermal, but the best sites are culturally significant, so they don’t really want to industrialize it.
So, many decades ago they looked at the situation and decided nuclear made most sense for them. But as a tectonically active country, it’s not really optimal either.
There’s a solution to poor wind and solar potentials, and that’s to overinstall compared to what a sunnier/windier climate may enjoy and batteries / hydro storage to even it all out. It can certainly be done but requires resolve and investment.
They actually are the third biggest solar energy producer already and invest heavily in off-shore wind and more exotic ideas like deep-sea hydro power.
It really does kinda feel that everything about Japan's climate and geography was created to be hostile to human life. Like someone decided to start a country at the Earth's asshole and now the Earth is farting at them trying to get them to just leave.
Japan can do wind, but the places where it would be best, like Gunma (the strongest wind in Japan comes off Mt. Akagi in Gunma, and it’s very consistently strong in fall and spring), is basically farmland owned by old people who would never sell their land.
As for nuclear, one thing I’ll never understand is how TEPCO basically ignored the giant stone markers that had been put up a thousand years ago saying that was as far as water from a tsunami had reached. The Fukushima plant was built between where they were and the ocean, and when the tsunami hit, it got out to where those stone markers had been erected. They also didn’t have anywhere near the emergency equipment, like robots that could do into the highly radioactive areas, that they needed (I live in Japan and was here during the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake).
And now, after Fukushima, no one wants a nuclear power plant built near them.
You don’t need to sell your land to add wind turbines, in fact the land owner gets a good royalty payment from the energy supplier. I’ll bet there is something else keeping renewables lower in usage.
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