This essay, dated March 9, 2019, examines how solar power projects expanded under Japan’s feed-in tariff system have had serious consequences for national land use, disaster risk, energy policy, and the financial burden placed on the public.
By citing examples such as torrential-rain disasters, slope collapses, deforestation, increased CO2 emissions, and heavier dependence on thermal power due to the shutdown of nuclear plants, it argues that neither solar power nor nuclear power should be judged emotionally, but rather on the basis of both their strengths and weaknesses, with strict regulation where necessary.

2019-03-09
The total amount paid last year for the purchase of renewable energy, borne by the people as a surcharge, reached as much as 2.7 trillion yen….
At present, electricity generated by solar energy accounts for 3 percent of Japan’s total power output.

The chapter I published on 2018-07-19 under the title, “Nothing could be worse than placing solar panels on mountain slopes.
Taking safety into account, they should be placed on wide, empty land where there is nothing,” has today entered Ameba’s official hashtag ranking at No. 15 under Denmark.
This morning, a friend of mine, a truly formidable reader, saw an advertisement in the lower section of the newspaper for the issue of Shukan Shincho released today, and said to me, “Perhaps the editorial department of Shukan Shincho had read your reasoning about the recent torrential rains and other abnormal weather,” and brought me a copy of the magazine.
Readers too will realize that my argument was once again 100 percent correct, but in fact reality proved to be even worse than that.
At the same time, I felt the utmost anger toward Naoto Kan, Masayoshi Son, Mizuho Fukushima, and toward the media such as the Asahi Shimbun and the news division of NHK.
For 2,600 years, in its unified form, Japan has nurtured beautiful hearts upon a beautiful land, and the words that all Japanese who love this country must now cry out are these….
Stop solar power.
An immediate total ban on solar power development.
The immediate halt of power generation by fossil fuels above 3,000 kilowatts.
The immediate restart of all 54 nuclear reactors.
That is what must be said.
For there is no time left for us to realize that there is no other way to save our national land from the designs of the villains who seek to devastate it.
All emphasis within the text other than in the headings is mine.

It Is the Disaster Victims Who Are Forced to Pay the Price.
“Solar Energy” as a Man-Made Disaster.

A dream story remains a story within a dream, not reality.
The same is true of solar energy, which was trumpeted as clean and free of environmental burden.
The solar panels spread across every corner of the Japanese archipelago in the name of environmental consideration are now about to strike us as a man-made disaster.
When people are driven into a corner, it is said that they will “grasp even at straws.”
In the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, for example, the hearts of many people were crushed.
In particular, the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, with its leaking radiation, shook the world.
It is understandable, in one sense, that people clung excessively to renewable energy centered on solar energy.
At a time when speaking of the usefulness of nuclear power had become taboo, it was preached that if renewable energy were adopted as an alternative, a rosy future would open before us.
At the forefront of that movement stood Prime Minister Naoto Kan.
An economics reporter explains.
“In 2012, the government expanded the feed-in tariff system, under which electric power companies purchase electricity generated by renewable energy such as solar power at high prices.
At the time, the unit price for electricity generated by electric companies using existing facilities was about 6 yen per kilowatt-hour, but the Kan administration decided to purchase renewable energy alone at the extraordinary price of 42 yen per kilowatt-hour.
The purchase price itself has now fallen to about 20 yen, but the total amount of renewable energy purchases borne by the people through surcharges reached 2.7 trillion yen last year.”
At present, electricity generated by solar energy accounts for 3 percent of Japan’s total power output.
And for the sake of that, the people are bearing such an enormous cost.
For reference, the total sales of electricity amount to about 20 trillion yen.
Even so, it might still be worthwhile if this were truly the capital needed to make a dream story appear upon the earth, but what if it was no more than a “straw”?
In September 2015, the embankment of the Kinugawa River in Ibaraki Prefecture collapsed due to torrential rain.
It has in fact become clear that one cause was that a private solar power operator excavated the natural embankment in order to install solar panels.
This was no dream story but a nightmare, and accidents also occurred in the present torrential rains.
On July 5, solar panels installed on a slope in Suma Ward, Kobe City, collapsed over an area of about 400 square meters, and the Sanyo Shinkansen running directly below was temporarily suspended.
Then, on the 7th, a solar power facility on a slope in Himeji City, Hyogo Prefecture, collapsed over an area of about 3,600 square meters.
“Ever since that solar power plant was built, soil has flowed onto the national highway and become a problem.
There are three solar power plants around here, and two of them were built by cutting into the mountains, so of course it is frightening,” says a resident living near the site in Himeji City.
Another resident also said, “This time, the part that collapsed just happened to be in the middle of the whole site, but if the lower part had collapsed, it might have struck cars on the national highway or houses along the road.
I am frightened and anxious about what may happen the next time heavy rain comes.”
Yet no one can now even begin to guess how many similarly dangerous sites exist nationwide.
Solar panels are invading the national land to that degree in every corner of Japan.
“Under the political leadership of the Kan administration, regulations on the installation of solar panels were relaxed, and in effect they came to be installable almost anywhere without permission.
As a result, forests across the country were cut down and covered with panels, and the environment came to be destroyed under the burden borne by the people,” says the reporter quoted earlier.
Tadashi Narabayashi, specially appointed professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, also says the following.
“The feed-in tariff system is a legally sanctioned system of exploitation.
If you use electricity, about 10 percent more is collected in electricity charges than before, and for the socially vulnerable this is a nuisance.
On the other hand, for the wealthy, it remains a good investment yielding an annual return of 11 percent even now.
For this reason, the solar bubble continues, leading to the reckless over-installation of solar panels.”

Turning Disaster Warning Zones into Barren Hills.

Sadly, Prime Minister Kan and the others at that time completely shut their eyes to the possibility that solar energy might be no more than a “straw,” that is, to its negative aspects.
Whether it is Mr. Kan or former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, it is strange that even now they continue to insist only, “Increase solar power,” and seem unable to see the negative side, as though they were still clinging to a straw.
In any case, because of the foolish policies already described, danger is already close at hand.
Even near the latest disaster-hit areas, large-scale mega-solar development projects are lined up one after another.
In the Sakuto district of Mimasaka City, Okayama Prefecture, about 410 hectares of slope, equivalent to 87 Tokyo Domes, is being cut away in preparation for operation next autumn, and residents are crying out in alarm.
“They are cutting trees and digging up roots now, so even with a little rain, soil falls from the mountain and the river turns muddy.
We opposed it because we thought that once completed, the sediment would become a terrible problem, but once the land has been bought, there is nothing we can do.
The company says it will build three dams so that nothing flows down, but when torrential rain comes they will immediately fill up.
Since they are digging up even the roots of the trees, it is only natural that the soil keeps falling downward.
If the power plant is completed and then torrential rain comes, the mountain will collapse.”
Also in the Oi district of Okayama City, a plan is progressing to cut down about 186 hectares of forest, equivalent to 39 Tokyo Domes, and install a mega-solar facility.
Hidenori Kayano, chairman of the district federation of neighborhood associations, expresses his concern.
“We learned of the plan in February of last year, and it seems that a Tokyo-based operator will cut down the trees, turn the mountain bald, and install as many as 276,000 solar panels.
They have apparently already acquired nearly 90 percent of the land.
Suitable flat land has become scarce, but because the panels themselves have become cheaper, forest land is being targeted.
They probably think it will still be profitable even after subtracting the construction costs of cutting into the mountain.
The same thing is happening all over Japan.”
Under the banner of ecology, the profits of private companies are being given priority over disaster prevention.
“Debris flows also occurred around here this time, and some people lost their lives.
Much of the area directly downstream from the planned site is designated as a sediment disaster warning zone.
According to specialists, the planned development site consists of soft decomposed granite soil, and it is only because trees such as konara oaks spread their roots that the ground is somehow being held together.
That is why, in this torrential rain, a landslide occurred even before construction began.
And yet if trees are cut down across such a vast area, it is terrifying to think that even worse mountain collapses may occur.
We have submitted petitions and resolutions of opposition to the prefecture and the city, but Okayama as a whole is promoting solar power under the slogan, ‘Sunny Country Okayama’….”
If “Sunny Country” means the blazing sun after a sediment disaster, then it is no joke at all.
Professor Tadashi Yamada of the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Chuo University, who is knowledgeable about disaster prevention and hydraulics, also says.
“As a general principle, the roots of trees growing on a mountain hold the topsoil in place and restrain collapses and failures in the surface layer of slopes.
Therefore, once the trees are gone, the surface begins to slide, and landslides become more likely.”

Far from Eco-Friendly.

Even so, does not today’s solar bubble fail to make the slightest use of the lesson of Fukushima?
Professor Koji Okamoto of the University of Tokyo Graduate School points out, “The Fukushima accident caused tremendous trouble for local people.
Likewise, solar power generation also needs to be firmly managed by the authorities.
And yet, because solar power advanced so suddenly, there are no regulations at all,” and continues.
“Nothing could be worse than placing solar panels on mountain slopes.
Taking safety into account, they should be placed on wide, empty land where there is nothing.
Yet at present, if one wants to build them, anyone can build them, anywhere.
As a result, cases such as Hokuto City in Yamanashi Prefecture, where solar panels have been recklessly installed on steep slopes after cutting down forests, or attempts to strip bare the area around a national park in Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture, in order to place panels there, have become major problems.”
What is not being considered, he says, is how much nuisance this will cause to nearby residents.
Professor Okamoto also touches on the essential weakness of solar power.
“It cannot generate electricity at night.
Also, on rainy or snowy days, and even when it is only slightly cloudy, power output drops considerably.
For that reason, in order to make use of solar power, storage batteries capable of keeping large amounts of electricity generated during the daytime are crucial, but current storage systems are inadequate in performance.
Innovation is indispensable, but given the present state of technology, it is utterly unrealistic to develop a low-cost storage system with sufficient performance within the next ten or twenty years.”
Mr. Narabayashi, quoted earlier, supplements this point.
“In Japan, the number of daylight hours suitable for solar power generation averages only about six hours per day.
Since the rate of clear weather is about 50 percent, the effective operating rate of solar power is only 12.5 percent.
And its share of electricity is a mere 3 percent.
Even if hydropower and wind power are added, renewable energy totals 14 percent, and the remaining approximately 84 percent depends on thermal power generation.
But thermal power emits large amounts of CO2 and is therefore the least environmentally friendly.”
Japan, where most nuclear reactors are not operating, is said to be far from eco-friendly even in comparison with European countries.
“Japan emits 540 grams of CO2 per kilowatt-hour of power generated, which is among the worst levels in the world.
Europe averages 311 grams.
Among them, Germany, which like Japan has shut down half of its nuclear plants and switched to coal-fired thermal generation, is high at 450 grams.
On the other hand, France, which supplies 78 percent of its electricity with nuclear power, is at 46 grams, and Denmark, which generates 49 percent of its electricity from wind power, is also at 174 grams.
In short, Japan, where eco is proclaimed the loudest, is precisely the country that is not eco-friendly.”
Moreover, as is well known, the CO2 emitted in this way is said to be the chief culprit in global warming, which now frequently brings torrential rains that were once regarded as unprecedented.
Solar power, whose dangers are scarcely given a second glance.
The increase in CO2 and climate change that result from it.
It is no exaggeration to say that our country is now layering one man-made disaster upon another.
Then what should be done?
Professor Okamoto offers the following proposal.
“Solar power has areas in which it excels, and nuclear power also has areas in which it excels, so we must use both wisely.”
“It is mistaken to conclude that because there are malicious cases, all solar panels are bad.
There are more operators doing things properly.
Most nuclear power plants, too, are sound and useful, yet because of the Fukushima accident, all of them came to be regarded as bad.
But rather than looking at only one part and marking it right or wrong, we should look at the whole and make our judgment.”
Just as there is no immortality in this world, there is no policy or energy source without a negative side.
Therefore, whether it is solar power or nuclear power, we must calmly discern both the positive and the negative, make skillful use of them, and impose strict regulation where regulation is necessary.
That is the only way to prevent man-made disasters.
What is required of us is not to clutch at straws, that is, to remain calm.