{"id":5847,"date":"2021-11-28T18:25:49","date_gmt":"2021-11-28T18:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euromenaenergy.com\/?p=5847"},"modified":"2021-11-28T18:25:49","modified_gmt":"2021-11-28T18:25:49","slug":"renewable-firms-pinning-hopes-on-taro-kono-winning-race-for-japan-pm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/?p=5847","title":{"rendered":"Renewable firms pinning hopes on Taro Kono winning race for Japan PM"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Reuters \/ Tokyo<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Renewable energy companies are betting that the leading contender in the race to become Japan\u2019s next prime minister, Taro Kono, will unleash changes allowing more market access and a fairer playing field after years of neglect.
\nThe 58-year-old has long championed more renewable supplies in Japan\u2019s roughly $150bn electricity sector, the world\u2019s biggest national power market outside China.
\nInvestors have been buying renewable energy shares hoping the popular Kono wins the September 29 vote for the Liberal Democratic Party\u2019s (LDP) next leader and \u2014 by virtue of its majority in the parliament \u2014 Japan\u2019s next premier.
\nJapan\u2019s energy mix is already undergoing change, with renewables on the rise, replacing fossil fuels which shored up power following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011.
\nKono, a former defence minister and scion of a political dynasty, is currently in charge of administrative reform and has clashed with the powerful industry ministry (METI), which like the steel federation, has supported a revival of the moribund nuclear sector.
\n\u201cKono has eagerly taken on deregulation over the past year, and a lot has changed. Japan\u2019s energy shift will advance further if Kono is elected,\u201d said Mika Ohbayashi, a director at Renewable Energy Institute founded by SoftBank Group Corp Chief Executive Masayoshi Son.
\nRenewable energy has also received a boost from outgoing Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga\u2019s pledge last year to align Japan with Europe and declare a 2050 carbon neutrality target.
\n\u201cThe attitudes of officials at METI have drastically changed. Their attitudes toward renewable energy startups used to be rather cold, but they can\u2019t afford to continue that stance,\u201d said Koki Yoshino, executive officer at Japan Renewable Energy, which operates nearly 50 wind and solar power projects.
\nIn 2018 a panel convened by Kono, who was then foreign minister, caused controversy by wading into the energy debate, normally METI\u2019s preserve, supporting a call to get rid of nuclear power and coal while dramatically increasing renewables. Last year, Kono set up a taskforce to take down regulatory hurdles hindering Japan\u2019s shift to renewables.
\nThe world\u2019s third-largest economy and fifth-biggest carbon emitter is heavily reliant on imported fossil fuels 10 years after the Fukushima catastrophe almost killed off its nuclear sector, the source of a third of Japan\u2019s electricity before 2011.
\nRenewable energy is fast catching up and accounted for 22% of Japan\u2019s energy supplies last year, meeting a recent government target a decade ahead of schedule and even contributed more than coal in one quarter.
\nDespite that growth, critics say METI has introduced rules that make it easy to force solar plants to shut down, known as curtailment, when supplies are abundant.
\nConnections for renewable projects are also being withheld at the whim of entrenched companies, Kono says on his home page where he outlines his polices.
\nRules governing the use of a major transmission line that connects Japan\u2019s main island to Hokkaido in the north need to be revised to allow more renewables into the mix, Kono says.
\nElectricity transmitted through the line has to be declared a day ahead of the actual transmission, making it difficult for weather-dependent renewables to use the line, which is currently underutilised, to transmit power to Tokyo, he says.
\nMETI has increased the target for renewables to produce 36-38% of Japan\u2019s electricity by 2030, up from 22-24%, and has set auction rules for offshore wind, one of the fast growing sectors in other parts of the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reuters \/ Tokyo Renewable energy companies are betting that the leading contender in the race to become Japan\u2019s next prime minister, Taro Kono, will unleash changes allowing more market access and a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blue-economy","category-clean-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}