Japan revises draft energy plan to increase the proportion of green energy electricity in 2030

The unprecedented Tokyo Olympics means that the world's attention is focused on Japan, and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of the Rising Sun country took this opportunity to revise its draft energy plan for 2030. The new plan saw ambitious renewable energy doublings and drastic cuts in coal and natural gas. More importantly, the draft plan also proposes the construction of a hydrogen supply chain.

The draft new plan aims to reduce Japan's emissions by 46% from the original 26% target (compared to 2013 levels). In order to achieve this goal, by 2030, the world's third largest economy needs renewable energy to account for 36-38% of its energy production structure, a significant increase from the previous target of 22-24%.

Most importantly, the coal target has been lowered from 26% to 19%, and Japan’s heavy reliance on natural gas will drop from 56% to 41%. In all these changes, Japan’s nuclear target remains unchanged at 20-22%.

Interestingly, Japan has included new fuels such as hydrogen and ammonia in its draft new plan, and said that by 2030, the plan will account for 1% of its energy mix. However, the plan did not specify that these new fuels must be green.

What is not clear is how Japan has increased its renewable energy generation so significantly in the past decade. The country has such a shortage of available land that it is demolishing golf courses and replacing them with solar farms, using floating photovoltaics on lakes and reservoirs, and seeking to invest heavily in wind energy. However, most of the waters around Japan are too deep for traditional wind turbines, and floating wind turbines are still technically in their infancy.

Considering that Japan is the largest buyer of Australian coal and thermal coal, and the world's largest importer of LNG (purchasing Australian exports worth US$15 billion in LNG in 2020), there is no doubt that Japan’s revised ambitions will have an impact on Australia The impact, perhaps especially with regard to the Morrison administration’s controversial “gas-led recovery”, for which it has pledged to provide private companies with US$224 million in funding for the development of the Northern Territory (NT) Beetaloo Basin. On the gas field.