Shulman Advisory

Japan considers hydrogen/ammonia CfD qualification criteria; avoids emission caps

In its hydrogen strategy revised in June, the Japanese government stated its aim to increase the supply of hydrogen and ammonia in Japan from 2 million tons to 3 million tons by 2030, 12 million tons by 2040, and finally to 20 million tons by 2050. To help achieve this, METI has been planning a contract …

METI proposes new measures for reducing curtailment of renewable energy

METI’s Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE) has proposed new measures to reduce the curtailment of renewable energy, which has been on the increase across Japan. The preliminary plan tackles the issue from three perspectives: demand-side, supply-side, and grid reinforcement, and will likely be finalized by the end of the year.  The plan includes:  …

New SHK System Rules Effective April 2024

Revised Japanese ‘SHK’ greenhouse gas reporting system to come into effect in April 2024 In an effort to accurately account for emissions, the Act on Promotion of Global Warming Countermeasures states that Japanese companies are required to report their greenhouse gas emissions using the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Accounting, Reporting and Disclosure System – also known …

The latest News in the Japanese power market

In our latest blog post, we take a closer look at the second round of offshore wind auctions, the GX Promotion Law that just passed the Lower House, updates on the Hydrogen Basic Strategy, and Japan’s largest battery storage facility starting up in Hokkaido as a demonstration project aimed at resolving the nation’s grid constraints. …

Overview of the Agrivoltaic Industry in Japan

Japan’s 2030 environmental goals and the preliminary energy mix proposal that came with them are pushing for an increase of solar PV generation to 15% of the nation’s power, versus 7% in the previous plan. In Japan, the bottleneck for developing mega-solar PV plants is securing the land. Developers have therefore been eyeing the agrivoltaic …

CCUS, a Technological Gamble for Japan’s Decarbonization Goals

Japan’s interest in carbon capture, usage, and storage technology (CCUS) is fueled by its commitment to net carbon neutrality by 2050 and its desire to keep thermal power generation assets online to provide reliable baseload power. The Japanese government expects CCUS technology to be available for some applications as soon as 2030 and widely used …

Non-firm contracts and the reform of the curtailment priority order

In some of Japan’s T&D areas, the development and optimal use of renewable assets are constrained by a lack of grid capacity. But rather than forbidding the connection of newly developed assets, the TSOs have offered them non-firm transmission contracts. This allows the new power sources to connect to the grid and use capacity at …

Smart Meters in Japan: A Cornerstone of the New Power System

Efficient reform and decarbonization of the Japanese power system requires an increasing amount of data, tending toward a real-time measurement of power generation and consumption at each point of the grid. With this in mind, from April 1st, 2014, Japanese power companies were required by the government to begin deploying smart meters across Japan, following …

The Upcoming Rise of Grid-Scale Batteries in Japan

With an ever-increasing amount of non-dispatchable renewable power generation and targets for even more solar and wind to be added to the Japanese energy mix (the 6th basic energy plan targets 37% renewable energy), issues around grid balancing and renewable power availability are becoming ever more important. Recent curtailment of renewable power in Tohoku, Shikoku, …

The Emergence of Microgrid Development in Japan

In a country prone to natural disasters, one of the government’s preoccupations is to increase the resilience of the grid in case of natural disasters and other emergency situations. The goal is for local grid branches to be physically independent and autonomous from the transmission network in case of emergency and be able to prioritize …