Energy self-sufficiency and its significance: Japan’s potential and some take-away lessons from Germany

Abstract

Fossil fuels have traditionally powered modern societies since the Industrial Revolution and our present day wellbeing have been achieved through such fuels. They are, however, finite in nature and quite harmful to theenvironment since they are the main source of global warming. Japan, Germany as well as many other countries arehighly dependent on the import of oil, gas or coal and have to pay the world market price. Unsustainable extractionshave brought fossil fuels under constraint and countries which want to (partly) mitigate this issue, should startinvesting in renewable energies and re-arrange their energy generation sector to a more sustainable system. Afunctional mix of renewable and conventional power plants can reduce the need for fossil fuels in the electricitygeneration sector, thus lessen the carbon dioxide emission while securing supplies and stability. The main aim of thisstudy is to investigate Japan’s potential for renewable energies and how to influence its energy generation sector withsome take-away lessons from Germany. Qualitative and quantitative research designs were adopted to providereasonable arguments to support the hypothesis that a fair share of its total (electric) energy demand could beachieved by capitalizing on renewable energy sources, while phasing out some old thermal power plants. A significanttake-away lesson from Germany turns out to be adoption of more innovative energy policies and their constantupgrades. Patience with higher price of renewable energy sources during times that world oil prices significantlydrops through political manipulation is another consideration.