by Eric Johnston
Staff writer
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Apr 16, 2023
Sapporo – The Group of Seven climate change, energy, and environment ministers wrapped up their two-day meeting in Sapporo on Sunday with an agreement to drastically expand offshore wind power by 2030 and accelerate the phase-out of unabated fossil fuel use.
But the meeting failed to come to an agreement on a timeline to exit coal, which several European delegates, energy experts, and nonprofit organizations in Japan and abroad had been calling for as a way to meet midcentury net zero carbon emissions goals, but to which the Japanese government is opposed.
Without a clear timeline to completely eliminate coal use, those favoring a deadline argue that it will be impossible to meet the goal of the 2015 Paris agreement to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels by midcentury.
The continuation of the use of the phrase “unabated coal use” leaves open the possibility of current coal plants mploying controversial new technologies like hydrogen and ammonia co-fired plants as well as carbon capture and storage. Japan is promoting these technologies, but energy experts have said they are likely to prove costly and would be inefficient at meeting the Paris agreement goals.
The International Energy Agency has warned that more coal-firing is not the answer to meeting the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, and it has called for an annual average 9% reduction in unabated coal-fired generation between 2022 and 2030 and a complete phaseout by 2040.
The ministers also reaffirmed their support for developing liquefied natural gas (LNG) sources as part of a broader energy security policy, especially in the wake of continued concerns about the impact on energy supplies caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine.
For wind power advocates, however, the Sapporo meeting offered good news. The G7 nations set a goal of ramping up the total amount of offshore wind power generation to 150 gigawattsby 2030, seven times the amount generated in 2009. The ministers also agreed to promote further development of floating offshore wind power, which floats on the sea rather than being anchored to the seafloor.
The Tokyo-based Renewable Energy Institute estimates areas of Japan that have optimal wind conditions for terrestrial, fixed and floating offshore wind turbines could generate 656 GW of electricity if fully utilized, and Hokkaido alone could provide 49%, or 320 GW, of the total potential. A conventional nuclear power reactor in Japan generates about 1 GW.
However, realizing even a fraction of that potential in Japan will involve costly investments in not only wind farms but also the cables needed to connect them to the electricity grid in order to provide power to major urban areas. This has raised concerns about what the final cost of wind-generated power to consumers and businesses will be.
Under Japan’s feed-in tariff system, the price for floating offshore wind in the curret fiscal year is ¥36 per kilowatt hour. Onshore wind is ¥15 per kWh, while solar power is between ¥9.2 and ¥16 per kWh, depending on the type