This book identifies second stage challenges and opportunities for expanding renewable energy into a mainstay of electricity generation that can replace fossil fuels and nuclear power, comparing Japan with several countries in East Asia and Northern Europe. Environmentally sustainable renewable energy technologies have now overtaken fossil fuel and nuclear technologies in terms of total global investment, and the costs of these technologies and related ones (e.g. storage batteries) are rapidly falling. Yet renewable energy use varies greatly from country to country. Major second stage obstacles to replacing fossil and nuclear-fueled electricity generation include the lack of electricity grid capacity and storage assets. Opportunities and solutions include expanding grids regionally and internationally, building flexible smart grids that offer better demand management, and policies that promote the expansion of storage assets, especially grid batteries and hydrogen. In addition, two keyfactors electricity market restructuring through unbundling transmission from electricity generating companies; and electricity market liberalization, especially for retail customers allow consumers to choose power companies based not only on price, but also on method of generation, especially fossil or nuclear generation versus renewable energy.

Autorentext

Paul Midford is Professor of Political Science and Director of the NTNU Japan Program, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Espen Moe is Professor of Political Science and Chair of the NTNU Japan Council at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

Inhalt
Chapter 1. Introduction.- Part I. New Challenges and Opportunities in Japan.- Chapter 2. Japan's Energy Policy and Community Power Movement after the Fukushima Nuclear Accident.- Chapter 3. Why Japan is No-longer a Front-runner: Domestic Politics, Renewable Energy and Climate Change Policy.- Chapter 4. Reforming Japan's Nuclear Regulation After 3/11.- Chapter 5. The Politics of Nuclear Power Plant Restarts versus Renewable Energy Promotion.- Chapter 6. Renewable Energy as a New Choice for Consumers: The Case of Minna Denryoku.- Chapter 7. Betting on Hydrogen: Japan's Green Industrial Policy.- Part II. New Challenges and Opportunities in East Asia.- Chapter 8. Between Rhetoric and Reality: Renewable Energy Promotion versus. Adoption in South Korea.- Chapter 9. China's Promotion of Wind and Solar Power: Supportive Policies, Geographical Challenges and Market Competition.- Chapter 10. Solar PV in Singapore in the Absence of Subsidies.- Chapter 11. Renewable Energy Policy in Vietnam.- PartIII. New Challenges and Opportunities in Norden.- Chapter 12. Why Norway as a Green Battery to Europe is Still to Happen, and Probably Will Not.- Chapter 13. Beyond Wind: New Challenges to the Expansion of Renewables in Denmark.- Chapter 14. Renewable Energy in Finland: from a Production-Centric to a Consumption-Centric System.- Chapter 15. Conclusions: New Challenges to Renewables in Comparative Perspective.