Fukushima region invests in renewable future after nuclear disaster

~ they paved paradise, put in a solar farm ~

Eleven years in and Fukushima is still a disaster?

Stay strong everyone

South Korea is scrapping their former leader's anti-nuclear plan:

https://m.koreatimes.co.kr/pages/article.asp?newsIdx=325289

When will Japan?

It's a matter of national security and survival.

Where are future generations going to bury the panels and turbines? Are you going to build more rivers?

Get smart Japan.

Go nuclear or go extinct.

I am a big fan of Fukushima 日本酒, and I support Fukushima Sake breweries since many many years.

After the disaster, my support becomes even stronger for Fukushima Sake.

Yes, I know it is just a small thing, but better a small thing than nothing.

Substantial progress has been made, in part thanks to hefty financial support from the national government.

That's exactly what Japan needs, but on a national scale. Investment from the gov into R&D and financial support for a national project to turn Japan into a hub of renewable energy. Japan certainly has the potential to lead the way into a new renewable age, if they so desired...

This is also rather timely with what's going on in Ukraine and how reliance on Russian oil and gas exports has put us all in a bit of a pickle at the pumps, and in Europe it's freezing everything. End reliance on foreign nations for fuel (as much as possible), and also on fossil fuels and nuclear power.

Investing in a renewable future ?

Now there's a concept that has issues .

Parts of Fukushima will still be a disaster in 100 years.

Radioactive isotopes are still being erased uncontrolled into the environment and water tables. Including Plutonium…

The main isotopes of plutonium are: Pu-238, (half-life a 88 years, alpha decay to U-234, releasing 5.6 MeV) Pu-239, fissile (half-life 24,000 years, alpha decay to U-235) Pu-240, fertile (half-life 6,560 years, alpha decay to U-236) Pu-241, fissile (half-life 14.4 years, beta decay to Am-241) Pu-242, (half-life 374,000 years, alpha decay to U-238)

Sorry “released”

Here in Australia the cost of power generated by solar and other renewable energy sources is considerably cheaper than fossil fuel power (we don't have nuclear,) so I am puzzled by the claim that solar is more expensive. I can only assume that fossil fuel and nuclear power in Japan are subsidised in some way and solar is not, or that the price calculation does not include the cost of pollution or nuclear decommissioning. When all lifetime and secondary costs are included, solar and other renewables are always cheaper.

The heavy and fixed solar panels are a thing of the past.

It is now possible to place movable, light solar cells on any surface.

Houses,factories,airports are all possible now.

Japan needs to implement the next generation of solar cell and power needs can easily be fulfilled.

You should see how many of these solar farms that have been built with tax payers subsidies are covered in snow at the moment…..you should also do a story on how much of the forest in the mountains of Fukushima has been cut down to store bags and bags of ‘top soil’ that’s deemed not to be safe. It’s unbelievable.

The price of solar-generated electricity is "a little higher" than conventional power, said CEO Motoaki Sagara.

Then you're doing it wrong.

Also every home has land, 5m down it's 12C. there's the air conditioning for summer right there.

Solar panels all over the countryside are an eyesore.

Doesn’t make much sense, without so much population, industry or energy consumers there or nearby. And it surely wouldn’t be sufficient for supplying big far away cities like Sendai or Tokyo by long overland cables with the respective big losses. Well, it’s ‘good’ for some loud news and show, a little bit research and mainly some more green propaganda purposes, but I guess there’s not so much more that would make sense and why it is done for.

Also hilarious that this farm is right by the ocean, where they could do hydrothermal cooling similar to the Enwave Deep Lake Water Cooling we did back in Toronto... checks notes.. 2003! Saved us from having a fossil gas plant right in the downtown. Walmart funny enough is also into green energy putting piping under their parking lots too. This is low hanging fruit.

Use the solar but you can also use the solar to run heat exchange pumps to get cooler water/exchange fluids back in this case. Scales to all three, industrial, commericial, residential

This would work perfect in Japan since so many cities are along the coastlines and the land has pockets of its own geothermal so deep drilling wouldn't even be necessary. You don't need dedicated geothermal plants they can be at the house, business, plant level.

Solar farm is great, but they seem to have ignored the thermal opportunities right next to them. Renewables are perfect for smaller cities and towns as they have the room and surface area to generate the power. Larger cities would have to drill down further, more in line with the borehole thermal energy storage system (BTES) at University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT). So it's not without possibilities. The trick is to get started and actually try to change.

So for Fukushima to change here may seem small potatoes but this is actually revolutionary in Japan. Change occurred! A plan was executed not just planned to plan a plan. They should be commended and hopefully other areas will follow.  

The challenge remains for other areas not even into solar, there are so many solutions that you have to be actively being paid to ignore them. Why hello nuclear lobby, why thank you for your envelope

wouldn’t be sufficient for supplying big far away cities like Sendai or Tokyo

Exactly, it's called local generation. The plant in this article is about Namie, Fukushima

Also hydrogen is a facade. It's only promoted by fossil gas companies to keep their business model operating. It's not needed and as such in a renewable generation society neither are those businesses.

Too many people in one place means you must rely on massive energy generation. Defining a city capacity based on its water levels is done in some countries, they cannot grow past their water table. We need to start thinking of energy generation the same way and start planning. Define limits to growth will help cap off areas and create an economic reason to not all be in one city.

Waiting for cities to do this is a waste of time. However smaller towns are much less likely to be on the lobbying radar and as such would be more likely to success, as the example shown here

Way to go Fukushima! Hardly a phrase to be heard these days but is apt here