Guest post by OilPrice.com
Why Japan Will Turn to Solar Energy Following Fukushima
As the dire news continues to leach out of Fukishima, the silver lining in its nuclear cloud is that renewable energy technologies, despite their daunting start-up costs, are receiving renewed scrutiny.
Make no mistake - given the trillions of dollars invested over the last five decades in nuclear energy, the industry and its lobbyists will not go down without a fight, promoting new, "safe" reactor designs, etc. etc. etc.
But the Fukushima debacle has finally bared the industry's darkest secret, it inability to manage its nuclear waste. The six reactor TEPCO Daichi Fukushima stored all its waste onsite, and the spent fuel rods and their lack of cooling have been a major contributor to the high radiation levels observed around the facility. Worse for nuclear power proponents has been the reluctant admission by TECPO that three of the complex's six reactors apparently did in fact suffer a meltdown.
So, what's next?
Hydroelectric facilities are a proven technology, but expensive and take years to construct.
Wind power also has substantial start-up costs, is erratic, and faces environmental opposition.
With the notable exception of bioethanol, little real money has gone into biofuel renewable, particularly in the U.S., where bioethanol produced from corn has a hammerlock on both subsidies and crop insurance, despite rising concerns about shifting land from food to energy production is driving up costs of foodstuffs. The leading contenders for bio-renewables, camelina, algae and jatropha, all are starved for investment as a result.
Which leaves solar energy, whose major draw back up to now has been its high cost to generate kilowatts.
