Japan pays huge price for not going green, renewable and solar powered

Japan is one of the wealthiest and the most organized countries in the world, especially if we consider the size of its population at 128 million.
Japan's transport system simply shines and incredibly outperforms any other country. Japan is truly a technological, knowledge and financial Super Power.

Japan is a world leader in high technologies, but it has totally failed in the department of renewable energy sources, such as solar power, wind power, geothermal, ocean power, hydrogen etc.
Japanese corporations are the biggest producers and exporters of wind farms, solar photovoltaic devices, such as solar cells, solar panels, solar shingles, solar heat collectors, but their own applications of renewable in Japan are far bellow world standards for similarly developed economies. Even their National Plan of introducing renewable energy sources is very far bellow European counterparts and shockingly surprising for such a technologically developed economy.

It seems, that public sector in Japan is totally non adequate for new energy circumstances and trends on the world market. Government doesn't have a clear and precise plan, considering power generation, which could be suitable to new power reality. Power generation and utility is localized in many centers, and power companies have a true monopoly powers. They decide about all conditions (pricing, availability, other restrictions) towards generation of renewable power. In other words, business conditions of any possible renewable power producer are very bad and not viable at all.

Japan imports more than $200 billion of oil per year and that represents an amazing waste of financial resources and a real threat to their competitive advantage. Oil prices are rising so fast, that the country simply cannot replace this cost by higher productivity and other cost cuts to stay competitive on the world market.

There is no viable chance for Japan to address the problem of oil dependency and renewable energy generation considerably better, without strictly guided central institution, supported by all positive legislation and financial backing by country's budget. Only strictly legalized authority could create respected order and better conditions for much wider introduction of solar power, wind off shore farms, geothermal harvesting, etc.

Japan is also a home of the world famous Kyoto Protocol about cutting carbon emissions worldwide.
Just to show you , how very behind the 'World Renewable Scene' Japan is:
Japan's targets about renewable energy sources look totally embarrassing. The famous MITI, now renamed as METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry) set a target, that 1.35 percent of Japan’s total energy supply have to come from renewable energy, such as wind, solar power, and biofuels, by 2010. This energy target increases up to 1.63 percent by 2014.

These numbers loudly speak for themselves. What is happening with Japan after so many decades of great technological and financial successes? I think, they need a creation of another 'Renewable Energy MITI', as they had done so very successfully in seventies, eighties to rescue the country from decades of economic misery of fifties and sixties.

What is the name of the Prime Minister of Japan, who is going to refresh and renew Japan's energy market and who is going to introduce unlimited potential of free solar power, there?


Photo by PhotoFusion Thanks!