(Mainichi Japan) October 3, 2010
Some 200 meters below the surface of the ocean sits a loop turbine 33 meters in diameter, converting the kinetic energy of the current into electricity. If the water is moving at a quick 2.5 meters per second, the turbine can pump out 2,000 kilowatts -- enough power for some 2,100 households.
This is the vision of the Engineering Advancement Association of Japan (EAAJ), an organization made up of about 50 manufacturing and shipbuilding companies, who look to the seas surrounding Japan as a vast source of clean energy.
A meeting in Tokyo last March to consider generating electricity from waves produced reports claiming ocean-based power generation could be producing 20-30 million kilowatts by 2030, and that the technology would be cost competitive with solar power if taken up on a large scale. Meanwhile, a number of venture companies and other organizations have been eager to tackle tidal power generation.
However, while Japanese engineers and business people have been eager to break into this clean energy technology, they have yet to see any support from the Japanese government, putting it far behind Western governments already putting financing into tidal power projects. In fact, the EAAJ gets no government money, and has been pursuing research into the nascent sector with only membership fees and outside contributions from NGOs. Meanwhile, the estimated cost of implementing the technology stands at 1 billion yen.
Help, however, may be on the way.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has included 1 billion yen for tidal energy research in its estimated fiscal 2011 budget request, though turning that into an actual requisition will be delicate considering present economic difficulties. Furthermore, to make tidal power a reality the government will have to push hard to shift other, non-financial interests such as fishing rights.
"If the government doesn't take firm steps to support tidal power generation, we will fall further and further behind other countries," said EAAJ Director Atsuhiko Umeda. If the government is serious about creating a low-carbon society, it must build a strategy that puts Japan in the lead in tidal power and do so quickly.
