Wind power can generate electricity up to that produced by 40 nuclear reactors, the Environment Ministry said April 21.
Wind power can generate electricity up to that produced by 40 nuclear reactors, the Environment Ministry said April 21.
The ministry calculated the amount of electricity that can be produced using natural energy sources in Japan. The result: Wind theoretically shows a significantly greater likelihood of generating power across the country compared with other natural energy sources.
The results show that even on the assumption that windmills are not continuously operational, they still have the capacity to produce electric energy equivalent to that generated by 40 nuclear reactors. Japan has 54 commercial reactors, generating nearly 30 percent of the country's electricity output.
In the disaster-stricken Tohoku region, where wind is generally strong, it is estimated that wind power could produce the same amount of electricity as that generated by three to 11 nuclear reactors, according to the ministry.
The ministry plans to propose the introduction of wind power generation and other natural energy source power generation as part of its rebuilding efforts in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
The calculations were made under conditions that windmill operations are financially viable. Amounts of electricity that cannot be produced due to technical and land-use restrictions were deducted from the maximum amount of wind power generated electricity that is theoretically feasible.
According to these calculations, the electricity that could be produced nationwide by wind power is estimated at about 24 million to 140 million kilowatts. This factored in the feed-in tariff system and other renewable energy promotion policies already set to be implemented before the March 11 earthquake, and excluded any new related measures.
Since windmills can generate electricity only when the wind is blowing, it is assumed that their utilization rates are at 24 percent. Even under this condition, the estimated generated power amount is about the same as that generated by about seven to 40 nuclear reactors that each produce 1 million kilowatts with 85 percent of utilization rate.
On the other hand, transmitting electricity between power utilities has technical difficulties, although there are some regions, such as Tohoku, where the wind power generated electricity supply is expected to exceed power demand.
From a short-term perspective, the implementation of wind power generation as suggested by this proposal is unlikely to be realized due to these constraints.
Also examined were solar power generation, which uses public facilities and abandoned farmlands, and small-scale hydropower generation, which uses irrigation channels. The estimated amount of electricity generated by these two energy sources proved to be too small.