TOKYO – Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will consider proposals to lay submarine power cables for offshore wind farms to try to expand the country’s renewable energy projects, Nikkei has learned.
One concept is that transmission cables would extend along the Pacific Ocean from Hokkaido in the north to the greater Tokyo area. This could offer cost savings over onshore cables to transport electricity from the coast to where it is needed.
If Japan moves forward with the program, it would follow the lead of Europe, where there are several high-voltage direct current cables that are tens or hundreds of kilometers long.
METI will set up a committee of experts on Monday to find routes, costs and records over the summer. The total cost of the program could reach 1 trillion yen ($ 9.2 billion).
The Ministry’s Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy will discuss how they can cover that cost, possibly by increasing electricity costs for consumers.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has set a goal of setting clean greenhouse gas emissions for Japan by 2050. To reach that target, Japan needs to use more renewable energy in the energy sector, which make up about 40% of the country’s emissions.
The island nation has the opportunity to expand offshore wind farms. A government-backed target is for up to 45 gigawatts – the equivalent of 45 nuclear reactors – of offshore wind power capacity by 2040.
One bottleneck to the expansion of renewable energy in Japan is the interconnected connections between regional power grids. This constraint makes it difficult to transfer power from where it is generated to where it was needed.
Submerging cables is considered cheaper than doing it over land, which can be expensive. and time compromise in a land-scarce Japan.