Japan news: To promote renewable energy

Japan eyeing plan for solar panels on all new buildings-Nikkei

TOKYO | Sat May 21, 2011 11:02pm EDT

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May 22 (Reuters) - Japan, seeking to promote renewable energy as it struggles with the world's worst nuclear crisis in decades, may this week announce a plan to make solar panels compulsory on the roofs of all new buildings by 2030, the Nikkei newspaper said on Sunday.

The plan may be included in a statement on energy policy by Prime Minister Naoto Kan at the G8 summit of developed nations, the paper said. The summit, to be held in Deauville in northern France, begins on May 26.

In his opening remarks at the summit, Kan will tell other leaders Japan intends to continue to use nuclear power after improving safety standards, the paper said.

But he will also emphasise efforts to boost the use of renewable energy by encouraging technological advances and more widespread use, the Nikkei said.

Engineers are still battling to control the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima Daiichi plant, where the massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems, causing radiation leaks and starting the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl. [ID:nL4E7GL040]

The final content of Kan's G8 speech will be decided at a meeting at the prime minister's residence on May 23 and 24, the paper said.

Kan, battling low support rates, has pledged a blank-slate review of Japan's current energy policy, which aims to boost nuclear power to more than 50 percent of electricity supply by 2030 as part of an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

But he will not announce any new energy targets at G8, because the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is still far from resolution, the Nikkei said. (Reporting by Isabel Reynolds; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

(source:reuters.com/article/2011/05/22)

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