Japan - Wind energy to be subsidised

The Agency of Natural Resources and Energy plans to subsidise installation of electric accumulators by operators of wind power generators from fiscal 2006 to boost the supply of wind energy, agency officials said this week. The agency hopes the subsidisation will help achieve the government's goal of securing 3,000 megawatts of electricity from wind power generators in fiscal 2010, the officials said. The agency has come up with the plan to partially subsidize the installation to stabilize the supply of wind energy because electric power companies are reluctant to buy such energy, saying its supply is unstable, the officials said.

The subsidisation is necessary because the cost of producing wind energy will grow by 50 per cent if electric accumulators are used, they said. The subsidies will be applicable to wind power generation facilities to be newly built in areas covered by the Hokkaido, Tohoku, Shikoku and Kyushu electric power companies, they said. Large-capacity electric accumulators save electricity produced during the night at wind power generation facilities, which will then be supplied to electric power companies during the day.

According to the agency's estimate, an additional 900 or so megawatts of electricity, equivalent to that produced by a nuclear power reactor, will be produced a year by wind power generation facilities if additional measures, such as the installation of electric accumulators, are taken. Wind power generators were providing 940 MW of energy a year as of April this year, and those to be built are expected to produce an additional 1,000 MW. Even if the goal of securing 3,000 MW of wind power is achieved, it will account for less than 1 per cent of total electricity supply. The amount compares with 16,000 MW of wind energy currently supplied in Germany.