JAPAN RETHINKING ENERGY

Nuclear crisis forces Japan to rethink energy needs; The March 11 quake and tsunami left much of Japan with a shortage of electricity and fuel. But the dark age has inspired creative ways to make do and save energy.
Barbara Demick (w/Yuriko Nagano), March 24, 2011 (LA Times)

"…Japan's baseball season has been pushed back so that people don't waste gasoline driving to games…[M]ost night games will be switched to daytime so as not to squander electricity. There'll be no extra innings…Tokyo's iconic electronic billboards have been switched off. Trash is piling up…because garbage trucks don't have gasoline. Public buildings go unheated. Factories are closed, in large part because of rolling blackouts and because employees can't drive to work with empty tanks…

"Japan's energy crisis is taking place on two fronts: The explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear compound and the shutdown of other nuclear plants owned by Tokyo Electric Power Co. have reduced the supply of electricity to the capital by nearly 30%…Nine oil refineries also were damaged…creating shortages of gasoline and heating oil. Gasoline lines…extend for miles. About 30% of the gas stations in the Tokyo area are closed because they have nothing to sell."

Once a power in green technology, Japan backslid but restarted its ambitions in 2009. (click to enlarge)

"Economists say it is difficult to parse out how much is the result of scarcity and how much comes from hoarding…The U.S. military has allocated up to 250,000 gallons each of gasoline and diesel for use in the relief operation…Energy analysts expect the gasoline crisis to ease…as supply lines reopen and panic buying subsides. The electricity shortage, however, is likely to linger for months and might get worse as the weather warms up and people try to turn on their air conditioners…[A]n unnamed senior official of Tokyo Electric…[said] rolling blackouts could last a year…

"…[G]asoline shortages are disrupting both daily life and relief efforts…[Some] gas stations…limit purchases to four gallons…[but] people want gas for emergencies…[like] if they need to flee radiation from the disabled nuclear plant…The lack of gasoline for delivery trucks has aggravated shortages of key products, especially milk, bread, batteries, toilet paper and mineral water…Some trying to flee the dangerous spewing nuclear plant in Fukushima prefecture weren't able to do so because their gas tanks were empty…[There are] collections of clothing, blankets and food [for earthquake victims with no means of delivery]…"

Japan was on its way to recapturing world solar leadership before March 11. Now it may lack the power to be a power player. (click to enlarge)

"The electricity shortage will be harder to fix…Besides the damage to the nuclear reactors, two thermal power plants were knocked out by the earthquake. And the energy grid in Japan is split in two…[so] the energy-starved north cannot borrow from the south…If there is a silver lining to the crisis, energy analysts say, it will be… [a turn by] Japanese public opinion against nuclear power…[It will] force the nation to look more closely at energy efficiency…

"With energy twice as expensive as in the United States, Japan is a world leader in energy-efficient appliances, but homes here are often poorly insulated and bright lights are kept on late into the night for advertising…[Y]oung Japanese will have to take a cue from the generation that remembers the deprivation after World War II…[T]he disaster does appear to be motivating the younger generation to take action. Students at Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo last week organized a campaign for earlier bedtimes to save electricity…"