Fukushima Wants 100% Renewables

The province of Fukushima in northeast Japan plans to switch to 100 percent renewable energy by 2040. The province is the site of the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant that suffered a nuclear meltdown three years after the earthquake and tsunami.

The energy will be generated through local community initiatives throughout the province of nearly two million, according to EcoNews. The plan is counter to the national government’s plan to revive the nuclear industry.

But former Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa is running for mayor of Tokyo on an anti-nuclear platform.

Fukushima currently gets 22 percent of its energy from renewable sources. A 2-MW offshore wind turbine is operating and two more 7-MW turbines are planned. A 26-MT solar array is under construction.

Government incentives such as a feed-in tariff that was passed into law shortly after the Fukushima meltdown are encouraging solar development. The shuttering of Japan’s 50 nuclear reactors after the incident forced the government to focus on alternative energy sources.

A September 2013 survey found that 53 percent of Japanese people wanted to see nuclear power phased out gradually, and 23 percent wanted it immediately ended.

The local situation is still unresolved, with nuclear radiation around the Fukushima power plant about eight times government safety guidelines as of mid-January.