Overview of wind energy policy and development in Japan

Emi Mizuno

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2014, vol. 40, issue C, 999-1018

Abstract: This article reviews the history and current issues of wind energy development in Japan and considers the role of policy and future direction of wind energy. Past policy with its weak market focus did not increase wind energy share in Japan. The situation surrounding wind and other renewable energy changed dramatically after the Great East Earthquake and Tsunami and the subsequent Fukushima Nuclear Plant Accident in early 2011. The new Feed-in Tariff regime was introduced and the Electricity Sector Reform is slowly progressing. Although wind energy has much larger potential than other renewables in Japan, the FIT has not increased wind installation to date, and the number of bottlenecks has hindered large-scale market deployment of wind. The limited grid capacity, the current electricity market structure, and grid operating practices by the existing Electricity Power Companies have constrained the grid access of wind projects. A layer of regulations related to development permits increases lead-time, project uncertainty, and risk premiums. Difficulty in terms of social acceptance is also high due to some of the past mistakes which did not address local community concerns. Cost of wind energy is also high, compared with other countries, due to lack of economies of scale and other reasons. Japan needs to implement a more comprehensive policy package to address numerous bottlenecks and risks to increase wind energy share in its energy mix.

Keywords: Wind energy; Japan; Policy; Trend (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032114006364
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:rensus:v:40:y:2014:i:c:p:999-1018

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2014.07.184

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().