Japan's mega solar power projects stalling despite push for ... - The Mainichi

Japan's mega solar power projects stalling despite push for renewable energy - The Mainichi

Japan's mega solar power projects stalling despite push for renewable energy

(Mainichi Japan)

Large-scale renewable energy projects across Japan are stuck in limbo, unable to flip the "ON" switch despite having government approval. As society strives to move on from fossil fuels, why are these indispensable plants going unused?

It is estimated that solar power plants alone forfeited rights to sell around 6.3 million kilowatts of power, equivalent to the output of six nuclear reactors, in fiscal 2022.

In March 2013, plans were approved to build an approximately 480,000-kilowatt plant with around 1.5 million solar panels on Ukujima island in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture. Lying at the northernmost point of the Goto Islands, a group of islets off Nagasaki Prefecture in southwest Japan, the roughly 25-square-kilometer island's primary industries are fishing and livestock farming.

There were high hopes for the facility, which would be among the country's largest solar plants. The plans were approved the same year the government began offering a fixed price, or feed-in tariff (FIT), contract system to promote renewable energy projects. Yet, 10 years later, the plant remains unused.

Plans for the project were originally led by a German solar power developer and included Japanese companies such as Kyudenko Corp. based in the city of Fukuoka. However, the German company left the project due to the time needed to secure leases for the large amount of land needed. Thereafter, the project suffered multiple delays.

Plant worker housing was completed at the end of 2022, and panels and other materials are now being delivered to the island. However, the prospects for laying transmission cables between it and mainland Kyushu are uncertain, so core construction work cannot get underway. Without the cables to deliver power, the project is not viable.

According to Nagasaki Prefecture regulations, construction within its harbors requires agreement from fishery cooperatives that have fishing rights in those waters. In May 2020, 10 cooperatives, mainly based in Sasebo, opposed the project claiming it would negatively impact the fishing environment. While Kyudenko has continued intermittent negotiations with the groups, the situation seems to be at an impasse, with the electric utility unable to get their unanimous consent.

One group which has made its opposition clear is the nonprofit "Ukujima no Seikatsu o Mamoru Kai" (Association for the protection of life on Ukujima). Chairman Jouei Sasaki said, "If trees need to be removed to make way for the solar panels, disaster risk increases. I have doubts as to whether the project can guarantee the safety of the island's residents."

Meanwhile, some islanders want to see the project move forward. The island's population has shrunk to less than one-sixth of the roughly 12,000 who called it home immediately after World War II. Economically challenged due to the aging population, a woman who runs a coffee shop near the ferry terminal said, "At this rate, the town will die out. I want the mega solar project to breathe some life into the island."

The government is setting time limits for long-unused facilities to go online, and may revoke their FIT rights if certain conditions are not met. For the plant on Ukujima, the above-market price of 40 yen (about 30 cents) per kilowatt hour has a set period of 20 years, starting from October 2020. This means that the more time is put off for the solar plant to go online, the smaller the profit the project will generate.

Ukujima is not the only place where renewable energy plants cannot commence operations. According to data compiled by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), of the facilities approved under the FIT system from July 2012 to March 2015, totaling roughly 49 million kilowatts of output, about 20% have never been operational. This is because the market situation has changed so much since the beginning of the FIT policy, which was called a "solar bubble" era.

The price set by the FIT takes into consideration the plant's infrastructure costs. These include the cost of solar panels at the time of the project's approval. However, the price of solar panels has declined over time. Thanks to mass production and advances in technology, the price for commercial solar panels per kilowatt has dropped from 210,000 yen (about $1,560) in 2013 to 10,000 yen ($740), according to METI's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy.

As a result, for the plant operators, delays mean lower construction costs and higher profitability. As is the case on Ukujima, local opposition can be the main factor, but it's believed that in some instances, the work is intentionally delayed by the operating businesses.

Under the FIT system, customers are saddled with a "renewable energy surcharge" to cover a portion of the necessary costs for energy companies to purchase power. Based on current market prices, these costs are expected to be low. But as long as projects that were approved with high fixed prices sit idle, energy consumers across the country will continue to bear open-ended costs.

(Japanese original by Yoshihiro Takahashi, Oita Local Bureau)

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