A.Before becoming the head of the Climate Change Projects Office in the Climate Change Policy Division of the Global Environment Bureau in the Ministry of the Environment in July 2020, I worked in the Water Supply Maintenance Division of the Water Supply Division of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare; the Policy Planning Division of the Waste Management and Recycling Department in the Ministry of the Environment; the Sewerage Planning Division of the Sewerage and Wastewater Management Department in the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; the Climate Change Policy Division of the Global Environment Bureau in the Ministry of the Environment; the Waste Management and Recycling Department in the Kanto Regional Environmental Office in the Ministry of the Environment (department head); and more.
A.My department works on a wide range of innovation and social implementation projects for the fight against climate change. For example, we're working on projects to introduce renewable energy, and one demonstration project among those aims to gradually introduce renewable energy on isolated islands like Minamitorishima Island—over 1,900 km from Tokyo—and build a distributed energy system on the island for facilities to be able to operate.
A.The energy needed to generate power and such is transported by ship and stored in tanks. In that sense, Minamitorishima Island is 100% dependent on fossil fuels.
A.Yes. We have experience from progress we've made on Miyakojima and other islands, which we're now using to introduce renewable energy on Minamitorishima Island and Iwo Jima.
A.We tried installing solar power generators at zero initial cost in public housing and other buildings in Miyakojima. Aside from residential solar power generators, we also actively worked to popularize heat pump water heaters, home batteries, and more.
A.As you know, Minamitorishima Island is very remote, so it's near impossible to transport the necessary materials there. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is constructing port facilities there, however, so it should become far easier to transport things to the island.
As for studies, we first need to check whether solar power generation systems will fail there due to salt damage from salty sea winds, etc. We also need to confirm whether rare creatures live there and how using renewable energy would impact them. I don't currently expect that there will be any major impacts, but as the tori (or bird, in English) in Minamitorishima Island's name indicates, many birds fly to that island. We're thus also observing the types of birds there, etc. Projects generating electricity with renewable energy are carried out in 10- to 20-year increments, so we must study what would happen to creatures living there during that period.
A.There are five major types of renewable energy: solar, wind, geothermal, hydraulic, and biomass power. I don't think we can use geothermal, hydraulic, or biomass power on Minamitorishima Island. Geothermal power won't work unless the area underground is hot, and hydraulic power uses potential energy from water flowing from high areas to low areas, which would be difficult on Minamitorishima Island as it's quite flat and doesn't have much rain. The island is small, too, so biomass resources like plants would have limited use and applications. Essentially, I think we'll end up studying how to introduce renewable energy—including solar and wind power—and looking at how much power is generated, among other factors.
A.Yes, we are. Huge wind power generation systems are likely to even impact the ecosystem, but we are confirming whether introducing small-scale systems also is possible while making our plans to do so.
A.It doesn't rain much on Minamitorishima Island, so the area is wonderful for solar power from a generation time perspective. We're still working on the study and will create actual plans next year, so we expect to start installing generators as soon as 2023.
A.We believe doing field work at least once per season—spring, summer, fall, and winter—is necessary. Employees from the Ministry of Defense; the Japan Meteorological Agency; and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism take turns residing there for 1 to 2 months at a time, so we look at when they will go to the island and ride together with them on their boat or plane. This way, we do as many studies as possible. We hope to demonstrate just how much necessary electric power renewable energy can provide through our work on Minamitorishima Island and to expand to other domestic isolated islands, etc. in the future.
A team of business experts is going to the island. Each team includes about five people, and there are five or six teams total. Rather than everyone going to the island at once, they go do studies in alternating groups of two to three teams. The Okinawa Electric Power Company, Incorporated is currently doing a study there. Isolated islands only get electricity from general electricity transmission and distribution utilities, based on the Isolated Island Service System. The Okinawa Electric Power Company, Incorporated mainly provides electricity to populated isolated islands through diesel generators, but this comes with many challenges: rising fuel prices have big impacts, and power generation costs are relatively high. Their study would allow them to add to their company's achievements by introducing solar, wind, and other forms of renewable energy that could possibly lead to generating less energy through diesel, so they're working on it very enthusiastically.
A.I went with former Minister Koizumi in August 2020. We set off on the Japan Self-Defense Forces plane in the morning, arrived at about noon, and looked around until we left at about 3 or 4 p.m.
A.The Cabinet Office established a national program called SIP (Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program) to realize scientific and technological innovation. They're establishing technologies to use in highly efficient marine resources research and creating the marine resource research industry. Minamitorishima Island is garnering attention as an area with plentiful resources, so they're considering whether or not their technology would be useful on the island. I'm also participating in this as a group member.
A.The International Energy Agency (IEA) announced its World Energy Outlook last May. Their report included suggestions that 70% of electricity needs to be provided by solar and wind power to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and that 90% of the world needs to be powered by renewable energy in the future. With that in mind, we must shift from an electricity system reliant on fossil fuels to using renewable energy within the next 30 years. Generating electricity with renewable energy would enable us to use distributed energy like solar and wind power, and each region's characteristics could be put to use for our energy supply. This would make the energy supply and demand structure more flexible. I think we need to show that this can be achieved in even the smallest areas, starting with Minamitorishima Island. Looking broadly at the world map, you can see that Japan's structure requires food and energy supplies from outside for life to be viable, just like Minamitorishima Island. The citizens of Tokyo—myself included—have accepted this as a blessing, developed the economy, and carved out a new world. Moving forward, we must transition into a new society that includes renewable energy. It might be hard to implement it in Tokyo all at once, but I hope that the results from Minamitorishima Island will be reflected in other regions little by little. In the end, I believe that this will benefit the people of Tokyo and Japan in return. Efforts to popularize renewable energy on Minamitorishima Island will be very important in changing Tokyo citizens' lives in the future. I'll keep doing my best to benefit all of you.
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