Restructuring Japan’s Bioenergy Strategy | Recommendation

in Japanese

Renewable Energy Institute has published “Restructuring Japan’s Bioenergy Strategy: Towards Realizing Its True Potential.”

Bioenergy is expected to play a great role in the ongoing global de-carbonization trend. For instance, as shown in the IEA’s 2°C scenario, it is expected to account for 17% of final energy use in 2060.

Bioenergy has characteristics different from those of solar PV and wind power: it can be stored and transported as a fuel, and often utilized for heating and transport rather than power generation. Using residues from forestry and agriculture for energy purposes provide extra income of these activities and benefit rural communities.

In Japan as well, bioenergy has a significant potential and its use has been rapidly promoted, mainly for power generation, since the introduction of a feed-in tariff scheme in July 2012. However, it is not fully utilized in terms of quantity or quality. The reason is that bioenergy policies have been developed without understanding the characteristics and suitable roles of bioenergy.

In this Recommendation, we present the basic characteristics of bioenergy and review the experiences of European countries, which are moving ahead of Japan in bioenergy use, to solve the issues encountered in Japan’s bioenergy policy and market and highlight a future direction. Moreover, a long-term vision is necessary to revise Japan’s bioenergy strategy, and immediate solutions are presented for each scope of application, together with some examples of good practices in Japan that are showing up in recent years.

Based on the strategic framework shown in the Recommendation, Renewable Energy Institute will continuously conduct activities towards realizing bioenergy’s true potential in various applications.

Restructuring Japan’s Bioenergy Strategy: Towards Realizing Its True Potential (1.67 MB)

View original report in Japanese (Published on 13 April 2018)

I. INTRODUCTION
II. CURRENT STATUS AND ISSUES OF JAPANESE BIOENERGY MARKET
1. 1. POWER GENERATION SECTOR: UNBALANCED MARKET DEVELOPMENT
  1. 1.1 Domestic wood: Uncertain views after the introduction of FiT
  2. 1.2 Imported wood: Issues related to sustainability and coal co-firing
2. 2. UNDERDEVELOPMENT OF HEAT USE
III. ISSUES TO BE CONSIDERED UPON RESTRUCTURING STRATEGY
1. 1. BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF BIOENERGY
  1. 1.1 Diversity of applications
  2. 1.2 Distribution and the finite nature of resources
2. 2. EXPERIENCES OF BIOENERGY DEVELOPMENT IN EUROPE
  1. 2.1 Utilization taking advantage of characteristics
  2. 2.2 Pursuit of low-cost sustainable fuel procurement
  3. 2.3 Appropriate policy design
3. 3. GLOBAL TRENDS TO BE EXPECTED IN THE FUTURE
  1. 3.1 Differences and complementarity with solar PV and wind power
  2. 3.2 Worldwide bioenergy use 21
IV. RESTRUCTURING JAPAN’S BIOENERGY STRATEGY
1. 1. CLARIFICATION OF LONG-TERM VISION
  1. 1.1 Role of bioenergy based on relation to VREs
  2. 1.2 Elaboration of sustainable use potential
2. 2. IMMEDIATE STRATEGY BY APPLICATION FIELD
  1. 2.1 Re-examination of FiT scheme in the electric power sector
  2. 2.2 Promotion of heat use
  3. 2.3 Realizing low-cost sustainable fuel supply
  4. 2.4 Contribution to locally-led energy conversion
V. CONCLUSION

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RECOMMENDATION
Restructuring Japan’s Bioenergy Strategy
Towards Realizing Its True Potential

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RECOMMENDATION Restructuring Japan’s Bioenergy Strategy Towards Realizing Its True Potential

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RECOMMENDATION
Restructuring Japan’s Bioenergy Strategy
Towards Realizing Its True Potential