5 THE POLITICS OF NUCLEAR POWER PLANT RESTARTS …
123
around fifteen years later. The Abe administration’s de facto adherence,
with some adjustments, to the Kan-Noda road map, reflected in large
part strong public support for phasing out nuclear power. Although the
public has some tolerance for restarts in the short run, an overwhelming
majority supports phasing out nuclear power, a majority that precludes
a return to nuclear expansion or even new reactor builds. At the same
time, the Abe administration put in place the legal, regulatory, and technological infrastructure for renewables to gradually replace nuclear power
as Japan’s main domestic source of energy.
Despite pessimistic assessments of renewable energy development
under the Abe administration, especially in relation to nuclear power,
renewable energy thrived, with annual new capacity and generation
outstripping restarted nuclear reactors. This was especially the case with
solar PV: After over 9 GW of new capacity was added in 2014, growth in
new capacity peaked at 10.8 GW in 2015, 24 and then declined to 8.6 GW
in 2016, 7.5 GW in 2017, and 6.7 GW in 2018, before rebounding
to 7.5 GW in 2019, with pre-COVID19 pandemic estimates of up to
8 GW of new capacity to be added in 2020. Cumulative installed solar PV
capacity grew from 39 GW in 2016 to 63 GW in 2019, already exceeding
the 7% target for solar PV (7.4% was achieved) set in METI’s 2014 and
2018 energy strategies (PV Tech 2020; Matsubara 2018, p. 9; IEA 2019,
p. 12; ISEP 2020). Japan climbed into the ranks of top-ten nations for
solar PV capacity in 2013 with a fourth-place ranking, and since 2018
has had the second largest installed capacity behind only China (IRENA
2020).
Wind power has lagged the explosive growth of solar, with only 32%
growth in installed capacity between 2012 and 2018. The amount of new
capacity held up by Japan’s rigorous environment impact assessments for
wind power has reached five times the amount of total installed capacity,
indicating that a spurt of new capacity is coming (REI 2019a).
Even with the reopening of some nuclear power plants solar PV generation alone outstrips nuclear power generation (ISEP 2020). In short,
despite Abe’s personal pronuclear proclivities, renewable energy, especially solar PV, continued growing robustly during his administration even
while nuclear reactor restarts were fitful and far slower than what he had
called for. Continued and new forms of policy support by METI for
renewables have been a major cause for this robust growth in renewables,
along with falling prices and rapid technological progress, especially in
solar PV and storage-battery technologies.
123
around fifteen years later. The Abe administration’s de facto adherence,
with some adjustments, to the Kan-Noda road map, reflected in large
part strong public support for phasing out nuclear power. Although the
public has some tolerance for restarts in the short run, an overwhelming
majority supports phasing out nuclear power, a majority that precludes
a return to nuclear expansion or even new reactor builds. At the same
time, the Abe administration put in place the legal, regulatory, and technological infrastructure for renewables to gradually replace nuclear power
as Japan’s main domestic source of energy.
Despite pessimistic assessments of renewable energy development
under the Abe administration, especially in relation to nuclear power,
renewable energy thrived, with annual new capacity and generation
outstripping restarted nuclear reactors. This was especially the case with
solar PV: After over 9 GW of new capacity was added in 2014, growth in
new capacity peaked at 10.8 GW in 2015, 24 and then declined to 8.6 GW
in 2016, 7.5 GW in 2017, and 6.7 GW in 2018, before rebounding
to 7.5 GW in 2019, with pre-COVID19 pandemic estimates of up to
8 GW of new capacity to be added in 2020. Cumulative installed solar PV
capacity grew from 39 GW in 2016 to 63 GW in 2019, already exceeding
the 7% target for solar PV (7.4% was achieved) set in METI’s 2014 and
2018 energy strategies (PV Tech 2020; Matsubara 2018, p. 9; IEA 2019,
p. 12; ISEP 2020). Japan climbed into the ranks of top-ten nations for
solar PV capacity in 2013 with a fourth-place ranking, and since 2018
has had the second largest installed capacity behind only China (IRENA
2020).
Wind power has lagged the explosive growth of solar, with only 32%
growth in installed capacity between 2012 and 2018. The amount of new
capacity held up by Japan’s rigorous environment impact assessments for
wind power has reached five times the amount of total installed capacity,
indicating that a spurt of new capacity is coming (REI 2019a).
Even with the reopening of some nuclear power plants solar PV generation alone outstrips nuclear power generation (ISEP 2020). In short,
despite Abe’s personal pronuclear proclivities, renewable energy, especially solar PV, continued growing robustly during his administration even
while nuclear reactor restarts were fitful and far slower than what he had
called for. Continued and new forms of policy support by METI for
renewables have been a major cause for this robust growth in renewables,
along with falling prices and rapid technological progress, especially in
solar PV and storage-battery technologies.