Summary
Entrusted Work Concerning Promotion of the Introduction of Renewable Energies
Utilizing Information on the Introduction Potential of Renewable Energies (FY 2020)
The Ministry of the Environment (MoE) has been continually implementing the “Study on theIntroduction Potential of Renewable Energies” and the “Development of Basic Zoning
Information Concerning Renewable Energies” since FY 2009, has consolidated an informationbase on the potential of all kinds of renewable energies (including electricity and heat), such as
PV power, wind power, small and medium-scale hydropower, solar heat, geothermal heat andunderground heat, and has achieved certain positive results for the increased introduction ofrenewable energies.
Meanwhile, to further accelerate the realization of renewable energies becoming the mainenergy supply sources in Japan, it is essential to strengthen functions of this information baseto facilitate to promote the introduction, utilization and application of renewable energies bystakeholders, including enterprises and local governments, which are expected to pursue
decarbonized business operation (zero carbon companies) and the decarbonisation of local areas(zero carbon cities).
For this reason, a comprehensive information base must be developed to provide not only
conventional information on the introduction potential of renewable energies but also
information related to the so-called “demand side” of renewable energies, meaning informationon the prevention or mitigation of local disasters in view of the increased frequency of severe
disasters in recent years and also on the improvement of resilience.
Based on the above, the function of the REPOS to promote the introduction of renewableenergies was strengthened in this work by means of primarily developing “data on the actual
introduction of renewable energies, including non-FIT power sources” and “such data as
disaster prevention-related data relating to conditions affecting the introduction, utilization andapplication of renewable energies” in addition to data on the introduction potential of renewableenergies which has been consolidated over the years by the MoE.
1. Discovery and Arrangement of the Needs for Information Required for Promotion of theIntroduction of Renewable Energies
To promote the introduction of renewable energies, necessary information other thaninformation on the introduction potential of renewable energies was extracted through a seriesof interviews with enterprises, local governments and experts and a study on pioneering
examples overseas.
The extracted information was examined in terms of such factors to determine the direction for
the renewal of the existing REPOS site in the coming years as the characteristics and importanceof information, period required to obtain information, information granularity, etc., followedby examination of the role of and future scenario for the REPOS site.

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2. Visualization of Areas Where Renewable Energies Have Not Been Introduced
For the purpose of visualizing areas where renewable energies have not been introduced,
information on renewable energy power sources was arranged. In the case of information of
FIT power sources, information already made available to the public was used as the base for
information development. As there was no publicly available information on non-FIT powersources, possible methods to identify non-FIT power sources were examined and the accuracyof information, development cost and advantages and disadvantages of such sources wereexamined. A demonstration test was conducted regarding the examined methods to understandthe performance of introducing renewable energies.
As it would be necessary to superimpose actual introduction performance data with accurate
information on the location on a potential map depicting the target categories of renewableenergy to enable a search for areas of non-introduction, the relevance of such superimposition
was verified as an attempt to visualize areas where renewable energies have not been introduced.

Fig. 1 Areas of non-introduction as indicated as a result of superimposition (1/5,000)
3. Visualization of Areas Suitable for the Introduction of Renewable Energies
For the purpose of visualizing areas suitable for the introduction of renewable energies, a study
was conducted on areas of much advanced introduction of renewable energies and new efforts
contributing to expansion of the introduction of renewable energies to extract and analyse
affecting local conditions and the types of data to be obtained. Based on the analysis results,
the feasibility of visualizing areas suitable for the introduction of renewable energies wasexamined through trial and error to find a way to display the superimposition results withinformation on the utilization potential of renewable energies.

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Superimposed data and sourcesb: Solar radiation map
e: Abandoned cultivation site (Processed land use mesh data)
e: Waste agricultural land (specific local information)
f: Water body (basic map information)
b: Evacuation facility (digital national land information)
c: Water supply-related facilities/sewerage-relatedfacilities (digital national land information)
d: Disaster prevention-related information (EADAS)
A water supply facility (demand),a small reservoir (supply) and an
abandoned cultivation site (supply)
are located close by each other.

A public facility (demand), an
abandoned cultivation site
and a transmission line arelocated close by each other.

Fig. 24.

Visualization from the viewpoint of local vitalization with renewable energies andresilience against disasters

Examination Towards the Expansion of Areas Suitable for the Introduction of Renewable
Energies

An appropriate way of providing information was examined with a view to facilitating efforts
by local governments themselves to increase the number of suitable sites for the introductionof renewable energies in their own areas of jurisdiction. To be more precise, the issues
examined were a suitable spatial scale for the type of renewable energy considered, necessary
information and way of providing information to increase the number of suitable sites forintroduction.
5. Other
An appropriate method to improve the degree of recognition and utilization rate of existing
systems was examined, targeting those working for an enterprise or local government. In
addition, with the data examined and prepared as described earlier, the contents of system
adjustment were designed to ensure the effective utilization of data based on the examination
results of a desirable installation method. To ensure the efficient continuation of the operationof the site, a low cost and efficient way of obtaining data to be installed and the possibility offund raising to cover the operation cost of the site in a self-reliant manner were examined.

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