The Impacts if Nuclear Phasing-out in Japan from Carbon Mitigation and Energy Independence Point of View

摘要

Among the energy issues facing Japan, energy independence and carbon emissions are particularly important issues in termsof policy-making. Japan imports most of its fossil fuels, and as a result its energy self-sufficiency rate is a mere 4% (18% ifnuclear power is included). The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster made the situation much worse byeliminating the nuclear option, which could have played a significant role in solving both issues for the country. Furthermore,the disaster has created a much more urgent and important objective: maintaining a reliable and economically viable energysupply for Japan’s citizens and industry, as its nuclear power plants are being shut down one by one.This research aims to identify the impacts of nuclear phaseing out using a detailed sub-regional electricity technology model,the Japan Multi-regional Transmission (JMRT) model. In this model, in order to reflect the characteristics of renewableenergy, mesh information data of renewable energy potentials are used to calculate the realistic capital costs (including theconstruction costs of grids and roads to connect to the nearest existing infrastructure) and to reflect the availability factor ofrenewable energy in the location.