The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) has called for urgent action to exploit Japan’s tremendous wind power potential for a speedy transition towards renewable energy.
GWEC said in a statement this week that Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s announcement at the G8 Summit that Japan would move away from nuclear power towards more reliance on renewable sources was “a welcome development”, but warned that there is a danger that by focusing on the ‘Sunrise Plan’, other important opportunities such as wind power will be neglected.
“We were disappointed to hear that Prime Minister Kan did not make any mention of scaling up Japan’s wind power capacity,” said Steve Sawyer, GWEC’s Secretary General. “Japan cannot afford to miss this opportunity to deploy the rich wind resource at its doorstep.”
According to a recently released report by the Japanese government, Japan has enormous wind energy resources which can help it make substantial efforts towards energy independence. Indeed, the report calculates the (purely technical) potential of Japan’s wind resources amounts to as much as 1,900 GW, including 300 GW onshore and 1,600 GW offshore wind power. At the end of 2010, Japan’s wind capacity stood at only 2.3 GW. Even prior to Fukishima, the Japanese wind industry associations had called for 50 GW of wind development, 25 GW onshore and 25 GW offshore.
Despite recent announcements to deploy renewable energy technologies, Japan currently has very low official renewable energy targets. In addition, in order to integrate renewable sources, upgrades to the highly fragmented Japanese power grid are urgently needed, as is an adequate support scheme for renewables.
EWEA reacts to EEA findings
Meanwhile, the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) has responded to new figures released in a report by the European Environmental Agency (EEA) this week highlighting the positive climate impact of renewable energy production in Europe The EWEA says that the published EEA data is “precisely in line” with its latest analyses showing that greenhouse gas emission reductions in 2009 were caused not only by the economic recession, but also equally through the deployment of renewable energy installations.
"An increase of almost 6% of the EU's primary energy consumption by renewable sources in just one year shows the power of the renewable energy sector, particularly wind power, to replace at the same time both fossil fuels and nuclear power", said Justin Wilkes, Policy Director, in Brussels.
The EWEA will be hoping to discuss just this matter along with a number of other issues during a public debate arranged in conjunction with the Press Club Brussels Europe entitled "EU energy policy after 2020".
The debate will take place on Global Wind Day (15 June 2011) in Brussels and will feature speakers including: Claude Turmes, Member of the European Parliament; Niels Ladefoged, Member of the Cabinet of Commissioner Hedegaard (Climate Action), European Commission; Folker Franz, Industrial Affairs Director, BUSINESSEUROPE; and Josche Muth, Deputy Secretary General, European Renewable Energy Council - EREC. Discussions will be moderated by Fiona Harvey from The Guardian newspaper.
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