<div>On 15 September, 2014, Japan will celebrate a nuclear free year. This would mark the beginning of Japan’s transition from being a nuclear energy dependent economy to marching towards renewable energy based economy. You could say that land of the Rising Sun has finally embarked on the journey to embrace the sun. <br /><br />Over the last one year, not a single unit of electricity consumed in Japan came from any of its 48 nuclear power plants. And there hasn’t been a single outage in peak summer hours. <br /><br />This change, from being 30 per cent dependent on nuclear power to 0 per cent, did not come about overnight or in isolation from government policy. It was a gradual process with clear intention of the previous Japanese government. Under the former Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, a renewable energy pathway was conceived and embraced. Of course, it was a realisation that came after the triple nuclear meltdown accident at Fukushima, but the accident also resulted in tectonic shift in Japan’s energy policy. <br /><br />Change in policy as well as inclusiveness and empowerment of the people has resulted in 680,000 independent decentralised new renewable power stations. The majority of the total capacity of 10.4GW is decentralised power stations particularly small scale solar photovoltaic systems. According to Japan’s Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry, these are less than 10kw solar panels, typically made for households, which accounts for 530,000 out of the 680,000 cases. This means that every month 23,000 families in Japan have become micro solar power stations, turning from electricity consumers to producers of their own clean and safe electricity. <br /><br />Electricity generation in total has declined by 78.9Twh in the same period as a result of increased energy efficiency and conservation. This reduction in electricity demand represents a saving of 1.7trillion yen, the equivalent cost of generation by imported fossil fuels. The reduction of 78.9Twh is the same amount of electricity that 13 nuclear reactors would generate in an entire year, which would sufficiently supply 22 million Japanese families. <br /><br />With the Feed in Tariff being introduced in July 2012, there has been a rapid increase in power generation from renewable energy nationwide. A total of 18.1Twh was generated in FY2013 from renewable energy, electricity sufficient for 5 million Japanese families for an entire year. As of May 2014, 28.7Twh of electricity has been generated from solar, wind, geothermal, small hydroelectric and biomass since the introduction of Feed in tariff in Japan. <br /><br />This transformation is historic since Japan had the world’s third largest nuclear programme. For the rest of the world, Japan stands testimony that an economy does not need to be dependent on nuclear energy. The proponents of nuclear energy have always claimed that renewable energy cannot sustain a large economy as Japan, but the truth is far from it. The people of Japan have not only proved that renewable energy works, they have also set a clear mandate for its government to follow. <br /><br />In years to come, Japan will completely deregulate its electricity market. The old centralised, base load generation, which dominated government policy and energy provision for the last half a century, is under threat from impending electricity deregulation and the ever-increasing market share of modern renewable technologies. This means that the consumers of electricity would be able to choose its service provider based on how it produces electricity. <br /><br />A closer look to Japan’s energy transformation reveals that energy revolution in Japan is people powered. However, under the ever present threat from vested interest group, energy revolution in Japan is under threat. Earlier this year, Shinzo Abe announced a new energy plan that effectively nullifies the previous government’s nuclear phase out plans. The restart of nuclear reactors in Japan has been stuck in nuclear regulatory processes as well as intense public opposition. Meanwhile, price of renewable technology continue to dip down making it a very attractive option. <br /><br />In contrast to Japan, India is way behind in the race for decentralised renewable energy system. <br /><br />Dharnai, a small village in Jehanabad district of Bihar, was earlier dependent on daylight for most of its everyday task. Now it does not need to depend on daylight as the village has found another way to utilise sun’s abundant energy. A decentralised solar micro-grid installed in the village can generate close to 100kW of electricity, enough to power 2500 people, 60 street lights and about 50 small businesses. <br /><br />Similarly, WWF-India installed a 10kWp solar PV powered station in Bajgundi Forest village in Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh. The installed system will provide electricity to 62 households, one school, one anganwadi as well as the village community hall. Each household is connected to an off-grid distribution line. Before the installation of this system, villagers used to depend on kerosene for their main source of lighting. <br /><br />With efficient distribution system and decentralised renewable energy systems, we could electrify many more villages. And with feed in tariff and people centric policies, we could turn electricity consumers into electricity producers. <br /><br /><strong>Authored by Hozefa Merchant, Campaigner for climate & Energy, Greenpeace</strong><br /><br /> <br /> </div>
