Why the push for renewable energy seems to be faltering
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Japan has been getting by without nuclear power for the last four years. Following the Fukushima disaster in March 2011, all of Japan's 48 other nuclear reactors were shut down. The predicted blackouts did not happen; the country kept running well.
Since Fukishima, Japan has increased its renewable energy production dramatically, and has enacted a “feed-in tariff” where any citizen can put solar panels on their roof and connect up to a grid, while the power companies pay a good price for excess kilowatt hours.
The response was dramatic. In 2011, Japan had just 4.9 gigawatts of installed solar capacity. Three years later that had leapt to 23GW. It put Japan ahead of Italy as the No 3 solar energy producer in the world.
Japan’s biggest solar array, nearly 1.5 square kilometres of panels, produces 70 megawatts of power, enough to power more than 20,000 homes. Plus, Kyocera Corp has plans to build another solar plant six times bigger.
Recently, Japan’s fossil fuel power companies began telling solar producers they could take no more electricity from them. At the same time the government dropped the price utilities had to pay for solar electricity fed into a grid. It’s thought the reason for dampening solar was a reaction to pressure applied by the lobbyists of the nuclear industry, who want to crank up nuclear reactors again.
The Abe government is pushing hard to return to nuclear power. It’s not what the people want, and it’s not reasonable, hut it would please the nuclear industry corporate bosses.
Additionally, Japan has immense potential for generating geothermal electricity. It has 119 active volcanoes. Geothermal electricity is cheap, reliable, non-polluting, and runs 24 hours a day, but geothermal will take a back seat to nuclear.
In Thailand, there’s a buy-back policy for renewable energy, but it’s a paper tiger and hasn’t really been implemented because there’s little incentive for the government to hamstring its own utility. The government would rather maintain the status quo of burning fossil fuels than seriously encourage a change to renewables. It’s just better for corporation bosses, and the environment be damned.
Regarding geothermal, Thailand has less potential for this than Japan and Iceland. It nevertheless has geothermal potential.
It’s not too late for the old men running Thailand to try something different – a method of generating power which is renewable, non-polluting, and cheap. If it’s good enough for the queen of England (she had geothermal installed at one of her palaces) it is good enough for Thailand.
My adopted town of Chiang Rai has at least two geothermal sites nearby – with scalding water at around 60 metres below ground. What is being done to investigate the power-generating potential of those sites? As far as I know, nothing.
It’s easier for the powers that be to just sit back and continue burning fossil fuels – and doing so probably makes them more money.
How is a renewable source of energy going to generate as much money for corporate bosses?
Ken Albertsen
