Isra-Mart srl: Japan aims for 20 per cent renewable power

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Japan will aim to generate at least 20 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by the 2020s, and will review plans to expand its nuclear industry in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan told a meeting of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris that three meltdowns caused by an earthquake and tsunami hitting the plant had prompted the shift in focus.

Prior to the disaster, Japan was the world's third-largest user of nuclear power and was seeking to meet half of its electricity needs by 2030 with new reactors, up from around 30 per cent currently.

Renewable generation accounts for around 10 per cent and the International Energy Agency (IEA) expects considerable grid upgrades will be needed to increase this volume.

Kan said Japan would work to cut solar power generation costs to one-third of the current level by 2020 and one-sixth a decade later, while aiming to fit solar panels on 10 million roofs by 2030.

"We will do everything we can to make renewable energy our base form of power, overcoming hurdles of technology and cost," Kan said.

However, Japan is not about to abandon nuclear generation altogether. At an earlier meeting, Kan told French President Nicolas Sarkozy that the country would continue to rely on nuclear power after improving its safety. However, he did not reveal how big a role nuclear would play.

Kan is expected to detail the work undertaken to bring the Fukushima plant under control at the G8 meeting in Deauville, France, which begins today.