Japan: Sprinting Directly Towards Renewables, Smart-Grid
When the Japanese began to contemplate the consequences of Fukushima, it became instantly clear that renewable energy would play an important role in their future. And, as outlined in this article, Japan is running hard in this direction, simultaneously replacing 80 million electric meters with smart grid electronics, via their partnership with Washington State-based Itron.
Japan has shown the world how focused they can be, and how aggressively they can rise to prominence in industries like automotive and high-tech. When they say they are shooting for 30% renewables by 2030, I’m certainly not betting against them.
I think I did a calculation for a comment somewhere else once and determined that if they did not sell any of the production of solar panels to any place outside their country they could replace the 40 some odd nuclear power plants in about 7 years at current production rates. If you take into account the rate at which the plants are ramping up production anyway it would be closer to 4.5 years. One thing that would help them would be to bite the bullet and pick a frequency for their power and make it the national frequency. That might cost more than replacing the power plants but it would also make power sharing more possible.
Right. And that dates to the 19th Century. Incredible. Readers may want to check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_Japan.