Mon, Apr 27, 2015 page15

• Like shale oil, solar power shaking up global energy

  • Reuters, SINGAPORE and TOKYO
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  One by one, Japan is turning off the lights at the giant oil-fired power plants that propelled it to the ranks of the world’s top industrialized nations. With nuclear power in the doldrums after the Fukushima Dai-ichi meltdown, it is solar energy that is becoming the alternative.

  Solar power is set to become profitable in Japan as early as this quarter, according to the Japan Renewable Energy Foundation (JREF), freeing it from the need for government subsidies and making it the last of the G7 economies where the technology has become economically viable.

  Japan is now one of the world’s four largest markets for solar panels and a large number of power plants are coming onstream, including two giant arrays over water in Kato City and a US$1.1 billion solar farm being built on a salt field in Okayama, both west of Osaka.

  “Solar has come of age in Japan and from now on will be replacing imported uranium and fossil fuels,” JREF executive board chairman Tomas Kaberger said.

  “In trying to protect their fossil fuel and nuclear [plants], Japan’s electric power companies can only delay developments here,” he added, referring to the 10 regional monopolies that have dominated electricity production since the 1950s.

  Japan is retiring nearly 2.4 gigawatts (GW) of expensive and polluting oil-fired energy plants by March next year and switching to alternative fuels. Japan’s 43 nuclear reactors have been closed in the wake of the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant after an earthquake and tsunami — since then, renewable energy capacity has tripled to 25GW, with solar accounting for more than 80 percent of that.

  If Japan reaches cost-revenue parity in solar energy, it will mean the technology is commercially viable in all G7 nations and 14 of the G20 economies, according to data from governments, industry and consumer groups.

  A crash in the prices of photovoltaic panels and improved technology that harnesses more power from the sun has placed solar on the cusp of a global boom, analysts say, who compare its rise to shale oil.

  Oil major Exxon Mobil Corp said that “solar capacity is expected to grow by more than 20 times from 2010 to 2040.”

  Investors are also rediscovering solar, with the global solar index up 40 percent this year, lifting it out of a slump following the 2008-2009 financial crisis, far outperforming struggling commodities, such as iron ore, natural gas, copper or coal.

  By starting mass-production of solar panels, China is the driving force in bringing down solar manufacturing costs by 80 percent in the last decade, according to Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute.

  In Japan, residential solar power production costs have more than halved since 2010 to less than ￥30 (US$0.25) per kilowatt-hour, making it comparable to average household electricity prices.

  Solar is already well-entrenched in Europe and North America, but it is the expected boom in Asia that is lifting it out from its niche.

  China’s new anti-pollution policies are making the big difference. Due to these policies, Beijing is seeking alternatives for coal, which makes up almost two-thirds of its energy consumption.

  China’s solar capacity last year was 26.52GW, less than 2 percent of its total capacity of 1,360GW.

  However, the government wants to add 17.8GW of solar power this year, and added 5GW in the first quarter alone, with plans to to boost capacity to 100GW by 2020.

  Coal-dominated India, with its plentiful sunlight, could also take to solar in a big way.

  Despite this boom, fossil-fueled power is far from dead.
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