Japan’s Mr. Hydrogen Sees Dreams Realized After 60-Year Wait

There’s a lot of excitement around hydrogen in Japan and many companies want to get involved in the fuel’s value chain. Only one company, however, can currently produce the sought-after liquid form o...

Japan’s Power Grid to Open Up to Competition With New License System

From next April, Japan will introduce a licensing system for companies that wish to run power lines. A revision to the Electricity Business Act will allow new operators to distribute electricity in a...

Japan Keeps Expanding Coal Capacity Despite Net-Zero Vow

A year ago, Japan’s government vowed to close three-quarters of the country’s coal-fired power plants by 2030. Today’s situation, however, looks drastically different. New coal capacity is being adde...

Solar’s Wild West Era Ends; Industry Stands on the Verge of its 2.0 Revamp

The era of cowboys in Japan solar is over. The rich Feed-in Tariff (FIT) that opened the country to a solar PV boom from 2012 attracted a hotchpotch crowd. Some simply monetized their earlier land-gr...

Debating Japan’s Draft Basic Energy Plan

On July 21 Japanese policymakers unveiled a draft version of the country’s Sixth Basic Energy Plan. Much like previous iterations of the triennial planning initiative, the goals are both comprehensiv...