Japan
Delegate:
Dr. Yasuyuki Ikegami , Institute of Ocean Energy, Saga University.
Alternate: Dr. Shuichi Nagata, Institute of Ocean Energy
The summary in this section was provided by Yasuyuki Ikegami, Institute of Ocean Energy, Saga University.
Solar and wind energy have received considerable interest from the Japanese government while less emphasis has been placed on the other renewable energy resources, such as ocean energy. However, in recent years, ocean energy has begun to receive increasing interest and several projects have been established for the promotion of ocean energy resources. The Japanese islands are surrounded by the ocean; hence Japan has higher potential for utilizing the various sources of ocean energy, such as waves, tidal range and tidal currents, ocean thermal energy, etc.
Many research projects on the development and optimization of various ocean energy systems have been conducted, although most of these were conducted, using a laboratory scale experimental setups.
Therefore, new initiatives are required to implementation of these research results in full-scale plants and real sea conditions to obtain more realistic results that pave the way towards the commercialization of the ocean energy systems. For this purpose, a plan called “Ocean Energy Technological Development Research” was established in 2011. The plan lasts for 5 years and aims to promote ocean renewable energy research projects in Japan.
Ocean Energy Policy
Strategy and National Targets
According to the “Basic Plan on Ocean Policy” which complies with the law of “Basic Act on Ocean Policy” enforced in July 2007, promotion of research on ocean energy will be focused on feasibility studies, performance and economic improvement of the technologies used in exploiting the various types of ocean energy. Similarly, a project under the title “Ocean Energy Technological Research And Development” was started in 2011. This project is part of the “Basic Energy Plan”, which comes in accordance with the law of “Basic Act on Energy Policy”.
Relevant Legislation and Regulation
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Basic Act on Energy Policy, including the Basic Energy Plan approved by the Cabinet, June 2010
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Basic Act on Ocean Policy, Basic Plan on Ocean Policy approved by the Cabinet, March 2008
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New Growth Strategy approved by the Cabinet, June 2010.
Relevant documents released
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Awareness of the ocean energy potential (2010)
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NEDO renewable energy technology white paper (2010)
Research & Development
Government-Funded R&D
Ocean energy technological research and development has been carried out as a national project for the period 2011-2015 with a total funding of approximately 7.8 billion yen provided by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). Under this project, two basic themes are broadly covered: verification research and technology development research.
In year 2011, verification research theme included feasibility study of wave power generation conducted by three parties, and feasibility studies of current power generation conducted by one party. Verification research under real sea conditions is planned after year 2014.
In year 2011, technology development included research on tidal current power generation and ocean thermal energy conversion. Further, new topics have been added to the wave power and tidal power research. Verification research on the newly established topics has been conducted by one party, while two parties have conducted technology development research on the newly established tidal power topic.
At present, there are ten groups in total carrying out research and development for the practical use of the ocean energy; one party is dedicated to ocean thermal energy conversion, one party is dedicated to ocean current power generation, four parties are dedicated to tidal power generation and four parties are dedicated to wave power generation.
Verification experiments have been conducted at real sea conditions with the aim of realizing a power generation cost of 40JPY/kWh in practical use by 2015. Resource assessment and experimental tests performed in wave tanks have been carried out during the FS period. Based on the obtained results, NEDO will conduct a stage-gate evaluation in the first quarter of 2013, and identify the parties that will be entrusted to conduct verification research in real sea. Parties passing the stage gate evaluation are expected to perform environmental impact assessment studies and manufacture the power generation equipment necessary for process demonstration during the fiscal year 2013. Construction and demonstration in real sea is to be done in 2014.
Wave power generation experiment
conducted in a wave tank (1/16)
-Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding- |
Tidal power generation
experiment conducted
in a wave tank (1/10) -Kawasaki
Heavy Industries, Ltd- |
Technology Development
Technology development research is concerned with the development of core technologies aiming to reduce the power generation cost to 20 JPY/kWh by 2020. Simulation and verification experiments of the various components conducted in wave tanks have been performed during the period 2011-2012. Baseline design and cost evaluation of the various power generation systems is planned in 2013 and later.
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Simulation of the ocean current power generation (IHI, Toshiba, Mitsui Global Strategic Studies Institute, University of Tokyo)
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30kW OTEC system (Saga University)
Related links
