TOKYO – As the world witnessed record heat this summer and rain disasters become more frequent, thousands of people joined a climate protest event here on Sept. 18, calling for a society powered 100% by renewable energy with stricter climate policies and no nuclear power.
Japan can do wind, but the places where it would be best, like Gunma (the strongest wind in Japan comes off Mt. Akagi in Gunma, and it’s very consistently strong in fall and spring), is basically farmland owned by old people who would never sell their land.
As for nuclear, one thing I’ll never understand is how TEPCO basically ignored the giant stone markers that had been put up a thousand years ago saying that was as far as water from a tsunami had reached. The Fukushima plant was built between where they were and the ocean, and when the tsunami hit, it got out to where those stone markers had been erected. They also didn’t have anywhere near the emergency equipment, like robots that could do into the highly radioactive areas, that they needed (I live in Japan and was here during the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake).
And now, after Fukushima, no one wants a nuclear power plant built near them.
You don’t need to sell your land to add wind turbines, in fact the land owner gets a good royalty payment from the energy supplier. I’ll bet there is something else keeping renewables lower in usage.