Biomass Power: Pillar of a New Japan?

Biomass Power & Thermal
By Anna Austin May 24, 2011

Recent events in Japan may fuel a new push toward renewable energy as the country reevaluates its energy portfolio.

In the wake of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant incident, a result of the massive earthquake and resulting tsunami that devastated Northeastern Japan on March 11, the country’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan said that Japan will push toward more renewable energy—solar and biomass energy specifically—as pillars of a new Japan.


The road to achieving that goal appears to be long, as renewable energy in Japan has been slow to develop. In 2008, biomass, solar and wind combined accounted for about 1 percent of the renewable energy produced, most of which is generated from biomass heat. That same year, renewables accounted for about 4 percent of the country's total energy generation, compared to 11 percent in the U.S., or 40 percent in Sweden. Since then, the percent of renewbles has fallen to 2 percent.

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