Preface
This is the Third Norwegian University for Science and Technology
(NTNU) Japan Program Policy Study. The first two Japan Program Policy
Studies were published with Palgrave Macmillan in 2014, and focused on
The Political Economy of Renewable Energy and Energy Security: Challenges
and National Responses in Japan, and Eldercare Policies in Japan and
Norway: Aging Societies East and West. Like those studies, it is hoped that
this study, and the others that follow, will contribute to understanding the
major policy issues facing Japan and their relevance for other advanced
industrial democracies, and indeed for the global community as a whole.
Japan faces several policy challenges in common with other advanced
industrial democracies, especially those in Europe. The focus here is on
using common values as the basis for cooperation to overcome common
challenges. Renewable energy is one such policy area, and the subject of
this Third NTNU Japan Program Policy Study.
This study is very much a follow-on and update of our first volume on
renewable energy and energy security from 2014, but one that focuses
on the new “second-stage” challenges and opportunities that renewable
energy faces in order to become a mainstream power source that replaces
fossil and nuclear fueled alternatives. These second-stage challenges and
opportunities focus on grid capacity, both extensively and in terms of
smart flexibility (i.e., smart grids), the need for storage assets to fully
utilize and integrate variable solar PV and wind power on the grid, and
electricity market reform and liberalization.
vii
This is the Third Norwegian University for Science and Technology
(NTNU) Japan Program Policy Study. The first two Japan Program Policy
Studies were published with Palgrave Macmillan in 2014, and focused on
The Political Economy of Renewable Energy and Energy Security: Challenges
and National Responses in Japan, and Eldercare Policies in Japan and
Norway: Aging Societies East and West. Like those studies, it is hoped that
this study, and the others that follow, will contribute to understanding the
major policy issues facing Japan and their relevance for other advanced
industrial democracies, and indeed for the global community as a whole.
Japan faces several policy challenges in common with other advanced
industrial democracies, especially those in Europe. The focus here is on
using common values as the basis for cooperation to overcome common
challenges. Renewable energy is one such policy area, and the subject of
this Third NTNU Japan Program Policy Study.
This study is very much a follow-on and update of our first volume on
renewable energy and energy security from 2014, but one that focuses
on the new “second-stage” challenges and opportunities that renewable
energy faces in order to become a mainstream power source that replaces
fossil and nuclear fueled alternatives. These second-stage challenges and
opportunities focus on grid capacity, both extensively and in terms of
smart flexibility (i.e., smart grids), the need for storage assets to fully
utilize and integrate variable solar PV and wind power on the grid, and
electricity market reform and liberalization.
vii