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Renewables Japan Status Report 2010
Japan Renewable Energy Policy Platform (JREPP)

RENEWABLES JAPAN STATUS REPORT 2010
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Chapter 1： Introduction
This report deserves commemoration as the first
Renewable Energy White Paper to be published inJapan. Following roughly 4 years behind theestablishment of the world renewable energy White
Paper, the Global Status Report (REN21), which
was first published in November 2005 at thePeking International Conference on Renewable
Energy (BRIEC 2005), in some ways this report’s
delay reflects Japan’s late start in renewableenergy policy and market development.
Renewables have long occupied a branch withinenergy policies. However, greater technologicaldispersion has helped bring about a global trend inwhich exponential growth in renewables is
emerging due to continuous innovation anddecreasing costs.
Within the next 10 years
renewables are expected to be able to exceed a 100
trillion yen market becoming a key form of energy
for the 21st Century in addition to fulfilling
simultaneous roles as a base industry andproviding the core component for time urgent
climate change policy measures.
In this way, a renewable energy revolution has
continued to advance and gain momentum inrecent years. In Japan interest is also finallyheightening regarding the role renewables play inenergy, climate change, and industrial policies.
Supported by effective policies measures such thosefrom Green New Deal initiatives, which are
occurring in several countries around the world,and Feed-in Tariff (FIT) schemes, which expandedfrom Europe to the rest of the world, renewables
have achieved rapid growth. Such policies havecreated conditions in which renewables, such as
wind and solar photolvatic (solar PV), are emerging
more and more as attractive new industries andmarkets.
With such goals as the EU’s aim of 20% renewableenergy by 2020 and the Obama administration’s
declaration of 25% electricity from renewables by2025, a type of “target introduction competition” forrenewables is fast expanding in numerous

countries, regions, and municipalities.
Japan canalso be said to have at long last joined in thiscompetition.
However, Japan’s renewable energy market hasremained in a grounded state due to market
policies for renewable not been sufficiently
examined or implemented.
At the 2008 G8
Summit (Toyako Summit), solar PV, only one formof renewable energy, was finally recognized as animportant candidate for government backed
support. A type of gift was left behind by theformer administration in which a limited FIT
scheme applicable for only surplus electricity
generated from residential, non-business use solar
PV was established in November 2009. However,
the government remains behind in conducting
policy-based examinations for other forms ofrenewable electric generation such as wind power,
renewable energy heating, and transportation
fuels.
The new administration, which won the generalelection in August 2009 and is led by the
Democratic Party of Japan, set several high targets
in its manifesto including a 25% reduction ofgreenhouse gases by 2020 based on 1990 levels, theintroduction of a FIT for all quantities and types ofrenewables, and increasing the percentage of
renewables as a primary energy source to 10%. It
is hoped that the new administration will show
initiative as a leader by shifting control of energy
policy away from ministry bureaucrats and pushfor new measures to deal with renewable energy
and global warming issues.
The publication of Japan’s first ever renewableenergy White Paper was made possible by theexpertise and action accumulated though thecooperative efforts of various renewable energy
business organizations. It is hoped that this firstpublication will help spur rapid development inJapan’s renewable energy markets, the newindustries supporting these markets, and theregional societies revitalized by them.

Chapter 2： Renewable Policy LandscapeWith the submission of its Provisional Basic Law
for Measures against Global Warming in March
2010, the Japanese government is preparing to

declare a target of renewable energy comprising
10% of overall energy supply by 2020. In FY
2003, in a separate policy, Japan established a
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Renewables Japan Status Report 2010
Japan Renewable Energy Policy Platform (JREPP)
renewable portfolio standard (RPS). However,
due to problems such as carrying over surplus
from the previous year’s requirement, utility
businesses have had little incentive to expand
renewable energy.
In addition, subsidies
supporting solar PV installation were terminatedby the government. This caused Japan to fallfrom first place in the world in solar PV
installations in 2004 and suffer from a declining
market share ever since.
The G8 Summit in 2008, however, triggered
Japan to finally shift its posture, becoming moreproactive in support of solar PV. This resulted in
the introduction of a feed-in tariff (FIT) in
November 2009, although the FIT is limited tothe sale of surplus power generated by solar PV.
The additional reintroduction of subsidies forsolar PV January 2009 also helped stimulate anincrease in solar panel shipments for 2009 of 2.1
times that of the previous year. The latter halfof the year (July~December), which includes theintroduction of the FIT in November, experienced
particularly strong growth with shipments
increasing as much as 3 times that of the previous
year. Such results provide a good example of thedegree in which policies can promote theintroduction of renewables (in this case solar PV).
The ruling Democratic Party of Japan’s manifesto
promises to expand the current FIT to include allamounts and types of renewables. In order toeffectively spread the use of renewable energy,
following through with such a promise isdesirable.
While policies regarding solar PV have been
examined and implemented in Japan, measures
to expand the use of other renewables have beenleft behind. For wind power, problems such as
grid restrictions, coexistence issues of birds andwind turbines, and social consensus problems
exist.
In addition, policies, much lessframeworks, needed to support renewable energy
heating and transportation fuels are also lacking.
In the private sector, there are high expectations
for the smart grid system being introduced by the
Obama Administration.
However, solutions
regarding issues such as deregulation andreduction of grid restrictions remain to be seen.
With Japan entering the first commitment period
established by the Kyoto Protocol, various carbon
credits such as carbon offset, domestic credits,
J-VER, and Tokyo metropolitan credits have been
introduced, crowding the market. While theenvironmental value of the utilization ofrenewable energy in these markets is promising,many issues such as harmonization of credits andestablishment of national legislation remain to besolved.
Among
local
governments,
the
Tokyo
metropolitan government is leading Japan’senvironmental energy polices. Tokyo plays a keyrole in creating policy models through suchactions as the introduction of an emission trading
scheme and expansion of solar energy.
Inaddition, Tokyo is initiating policy cooperation in
the metropolitan area as well as creating
practical partnerships with private sectors andenvironmental NGOs.
Energy companies such as electric power, gas, andoil companies are also pursing renewable energy.
Power utilities are planning mega solar power
generation as well as integrating solar heating
technologies in the development of hot-water heatpump mechanisms. In addition, gas companies
are developing solar heating for apartments thatcan be installed on balconies, and oil companies
are entering full-scale into the solar PV market.
The solar PV industry is most the advanced
among Japanese renewable energy industries.
The former administration targeted an increaseof 20 times as many solar PV installations by
2020 and 40 times by 2030. Although otherrenewable were given low standing by theprevious administration, it is expected that moreproactive renewable policies will be introduced by
the new government.
Green Power Certificate trading in the private
sector reached 160 GWh in FY 2008 (100%increase from the previous fiscal year) withtrading expected to be increase further due to theTokyo Metropolitan Government’s new cap &trade market. Green Heat Certificates for solar
hot water systems were also introduced in April
2009 and a similar certifying system for otherheat renewables is being created.
In order to expand the renewable energy market,
it is necessary to provide financial support,
develop infrastructure to encourage participation
by citizens and communities, and establish a newsocial system based around social consensus
regarding issues involving windmills such as
birds and scenery, or those between hot springsand geothermal power

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Renewables Japan Status Report 2010
Japan Renewable Energy Policy Platform (JREPP)

Chapter 3： Trends of Renewable Energy(1)Electric Power
Changes in trends regarding the electric power
energy market in Japan are described as follows.
As shown in Figure 1, the existing capacity of
renewable power generation reached over
10,000MW at the end of fiscal year 2008, 60% of
which consisted of small hydro under 10,000kW
and biomass (including waste power generation).
Solar PV and wind power accounted for an
estimated 37% at the end of FY 2008. These grew
more than 30% annually from 2000 until 2004,
however, growth has since slowed due to a
discontinuation of subsidies. Although added
power capacity from geothermal and small hydrohas been small since 1990, it accounted for
estimated 35% of the cumulative capacity at theend of FY 2008. Increases in waste-power
generation, especially those using general wastes,
had led to an overall increase in biomass power
capacity resulting in biomass providing just under
30% of total capacity at the end of FY 2008.
The projected amount of power generation in eachfiscal year is shown in Figure 2. This wascalculated by a ratio of facility utilization (i.e. howmuch energy is actually produced from facilities)
based on each technology. Although the growthrate of geothermal power and small hydropower
was low, its utilization rate exceeded 60% on the
average and annual power generation accounted formore than half of the energy supplied by renewableenergy.
Solar PV and wind power generation had a highgrowth rate and accounted for 15% of renewableenergy power generation in FY 2008. Renewableenergy supplied only 3% of the total power
generation in Japan (1,200,000GWh in FY 2007,
including households) which is only 1% increasesince 1990.

Figure 1 Cumulative Renewable Power Capacity inJapan (ISEP)

Figure 2 Estimated Renewable Power Generationin Japan (Survey by ISEP)In FY 2008, the total renewable energy supply was
7,918GWh while the amount required by the
Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), which wasintroduced in FY 2003, was 7,465GWh. A surplus
of 6,759GWh was carried over from the previous
fiscal year. Thus, while electrical power suppliers
can meet the RPS requirement, they can also carryover 7,043GWh for FY 2010. Therefore, it can beconcluded that the current PRS framework does notcreate incentives for electric power suppliers topromote renewable energy.
On the other hand, since the green power
certification system started in FY 2001, the amountof certified electric power has continued to expand,with cumulative capacity of certified facilities
reaching 400MW in FY 2008. Annual certified
power exceeded 200GWh in FY 2008 and green
power certificates of more than 160GWh were also
issued in FY 2008.
(a) Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Power Generation
Cumulative installations of solar PV reached
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Renewables Japan Status Report 2010
Japan Renewable Energy Policy Platform (JREPP)
2,198MV, exceeding 2,000MV mark at the end of
FY 2008 in Japan, although the growth rate has
slowed down since FY 2005 when subsidies forhouseholds expired.
On the other hand, overseas
shipments of solar PV panels grew steadily andexceeded domestic shipments in FY 2004. An
estimated 900 MV was shipped abroad in single FY
2008 (four times as much as the total amountshipped domestically).

Figure 4 Wind Power Capacity, Added and Existing(JWPA)(c) Small Hydropower Generation

Figure 3 Shipment Volume of Solar PV (from JPEA
data)(b) Wind Power Generation
Japanese wind power generation started in 1980,
but began in full-force with the introduction of
1,000kW generating systems in 1999. Since then,the construction of new large-scale wind farms
have allowed for total generation capacity to reachmore than 10,000kW.
By the end of FY 2008, 1,517 wind turbines were
installed with capacity of 1,853.6MW. However,reaching the national target of 3,000MV added by2010 appears unlikely without any support fromthe government.
Many wind turbines have been installed in
Hokkaido, Tohoku, and Kyushu where the windconditions are desirable. However, recruitment
for new installation is limited because gridconnection capacity is constrained. Applicantsneed to draw lots or take bids. Furthermore,various restrictions on location, the amendment tothe building code in 2008, and global increasing
demand on wind power plants have added burden
on wind power industries. As a result, in terms of
single year basis, additional installations werestagnating.

Small hydropower capacity with 10,000kW or lesswas 3,225MW (1198 plants) at the end of FY 2008,
accounting for 6.6% of the total hydropower
capacity in Japan. Most domestic smallhydropower plants were built before 1990, and only
127 plants accounting for a total capacity of
166MW were constructed after 1990. Individually,
most of these facilities produce less than 1000kW sothey are subject to the Renewable Portfolio
Standard.
(d) Geothermal Power Generation
Since the first operation of geothermal power
generation started in 1966, geothermal power
capacity has remained around 550MW. Whengeothermal development gained momentum after
the oil crisis in the 1970’s, geothermal power
equipment was installed by private initiatives.
Since 1990, installations had been promoted byvarious subsidies provided by the government.
However, since 1999 when the last facility was
introduced in Hachijo Island, geothermal has notbeen developed further, leading the current decade
to be called the "lost decade". Most geothermal
power is not regarded as renewable energy, norapplicable to Renewable Portfolio Standards. In
recent years, reviews on the geothermal power
generation have once again started withgeothermal beginning to drawing attention due tothe huge resource potential and growth of domestic
industry.
(e) Biomass Power Generation
There are various sources used for fuel in biomass
power generation including wood originated fromforests, food and livestock, industrial waste such as
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Renewables Japan Status Report 2010
Japan Renewable Energy Policy Platform (JREPP)
architectural scraps and general waste such as foodwaste. Biomass power is generated from direct
combustion, gasification or methane fermentationof biomass. Cumulative domestic capacity
increased 750% (from 1990 level) to 3,138MW by
the end of FY 2008. Power generation fromgeneral waste accounted for 55% with industrial
waste supplying 40%, making up 95% of biomass
power generation in Japan. In addition, most of
the biomass facilities have been certified by Japan’s
RPS. Power generation from woody biomass offorest remained about 4% making cascade
utilization of forestry biomass through thepromotion of forest industry and active use ofdomestic lumber highly expected. Evaluation ofboth the sustainability and reduction effects of CO2
according to different types of biomass sources has
proven difficult, making the development of a fairevaluation method greatly needed in order tosupport the implementation of other systems suchas emissions trading.
(2) Heat
Generally, there are three types of renewable
heating markets. Solar heating is the mostpopular. The second type is geothermal heating
which includes heat from ground sources. This
type is familiar to the public as a source for hot
springs. The third is biomass heat which uses
forestry resources. However, other than solar
heating, there is very little domestic statisticalinformation and data in order to determine how
many heating systems have been installed.

shrank to less than one tenth of the peak, with
60,000 solar hot water and 4,700 solar heating
systems installations in 2008. As a result the total
capacity of solar heating, which is determined bydeducting the depreciation of the systems from thecumulative installations, has continued to decline
since 1994.
(b) Geothermal
The traditional use of hot springs for bathing isregarded as a usage of geothermal heat. Hot
springs can reduce the usage of fossil fuels as
substitutes for heating bath water. The use ofgeothermal heat, which tends to have stabletemperatures, can help improve the energy
efficiency of air conditioning, heating, and supply of
hot water.
(c) Biomass
Traditionally, firewood has been included as abiomass resource. However, in its consideration of
biomass, this report assumes the use of sources
such as wood pellets and wood chips in special
burning appliances. Large scale boilers which use
biomass resources in paper manufacturing
companies, as well as CHP (combined heat andpower) systems are also considered in this research.
Nevertheless, it is difficult to estimate the amountof energy generated from these means as the mostof the heat generated is consumed in the
manufacturing process.
(3) Fuels(a) Solar heating
Solar hot water capacity increased in the 1980's
after the oil crisis, however, declines in productreliability stemming from quality issues of thesegeneration systems caused a decline in sales.
Recently however, development of new technologies
allowing for the combination of solar heating withother heating sources has led to resurgence in
expectations for its use as these systems can be
employed not only for households, but also forbusinesses.
The solar heating market emerged in the 1970’s
after the oil crisis. Sales reached a peak in 1980,
with more than 800,000 solar hot water systems( 1680MWth) and about 26,000 ( 17.5MWth) solar
heating systems installed. However, the market

The bio-fuel target of 500,000kl to be used fortransportation by 2010 was included in the Kyoto
Protocol Target Achievement Plan, which was
determined by the cabinet ministry in 2005.
Nevertheless, domestic ethanol production was
only 30kl in 2006, 90kl in 2007 and 200kl in 2008.
While biodiesel production was 10,000kl in 2007,
its main component waste vegetable oil is also usedin feedstock, industrial manufacturing, and boiler
fuels leading to an estimated demand of 100,000kl.
However, sales of electric vehicles (EV) expected touse renewable energy started in 2009, leading to apotential increase in attention surrounding
bio-fuels.

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Renewables Japan Status Report 2010
Japan Renewable Energy Policy Platform (JREPP)

Chapter 4：Long-term Scenario“Renewable energy vision in 2050” which adopts
Japan’s long term energy vision was published by“Japan Renewable Energy Policy Platform”(JREPP), an organization established in July, 2008
among renewable energy related organizations.
This vision examines the potential of renewableenergy, particularly as a center of “innovation” inregard to the possibility of Japan establishing its
own targets as well as contributing toward climatechange measures.
For the study, a goal of 75% reduction in CO2emissions originating from energy use (based on
2000 levels) and the domestic development of 50%
of Japan’s energy needs by 2050 was assumed.
The results of the study showed the potential forrenewable energy to be responsible for 67% ofdomestic electric demand and more than 50% ofprimary energy supply. In order to achieve thislong-term vision, it is essential to establish along-term high numerical target and politicalcommitment as well as the inclusion of externalcosts such as those caused by climate change.

In order to achieve this vision, JREPP is creating
policy recommendations, to help establish atransparent and stable “renewable energy market”
which can reduce the financial risk of renewableenergy business for the long term by introducing
feed in tariffs.

Figure 5 Share of Power Generation by
Technologies in 2050

Chapter 5：Regional Potential & Implementation
Although renewable energy accounts for only 4% inenergy supply in Japan, some prefectures andmunicipals in certain regions have the potential tosupply abundant amounts of renewable energy.
Data from the “Energy Sustainable Zone” report(2008) shows that 11 prefectures including Oita,
Akita and Toyama supplied more than 10% of theirdemand in electricity of consumer (household &business, excluding industry and transportation)
and agricultural and fishery sectors fromrenewables. 6 prefectures supplied more than
10% of their demand in electricity and heat ofconsumer, agricultural and fishery sectors.
Furthermore, 50 municipals supply their municipal
energy demand (both power and heat) in consumer,
agricultural and fishery sectors with renewableenergy only, with 100% or more of the energy selfsupplied (Figure 6).

As for the potentiality of regional installations,
examination of the feasibility and estimatedgeneration capacities of solar PV, wind power,hydro and geothermal power has been conducted.
In addition, the suitability of these locations as wellas their social and economic limitations is becoming
clearer from studies conducted by the Ministry ofEnvironment and other organizations.
For
renewables other than solar PV, since they arelocated disproportionately, policies supporting
introduction which match the particularities ofeach region and focus on factors such as reinforcing
grid connections are needed. The results of eachstudies carried out are currently being used basematerialforregional
renewableenergyintroduction plans.

In comparison, the renewable energy supply ratio
for big cities such as Tokyo and Osaka is very low
at less than 1% since energy demand in consumer,
agricultural and fishery sectors is relatively high.
It is therefore necessary for these cities to deepen
cooperation with regions where renewable energy isavailable or abundant in order to increase theirdevelopment and use of renewable energy.
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