Stricter guidelines means Japan installs less wind power
Tighter regulations on wind turbines have restricted construction in the past two years and the world's fifth largest greenhouse gas emittor has focused more on solar panels to help to fight global warming.
Japan accounts for only 1.6 percent of the world's wind power market, which is estimated to grow by a record 30,300 MW of installed capacity this year to a total of 152,000 MW, according to the World Wind Energy Association.
The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) said in the report that Japan's wind power installed capacity totaled 1,854 MW as of March, with 1,517 turbines.
The stricter guidelines, which stipulate that wind turbines must clear the same safety regulations that apply to tall buildings, were introduced in 2007 following a scandal over falsified engineering data for apartment blocks.
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Africa must quadruple power investment to supply electricity for all, IEA says
JOHANNESBURG - African countries will need to quadruple their rate of investment in their power sectors for the next two decades to bring reliable electricity to all Africans, an International Energy Agency (IEA) study published on Friday said.
If African countries continue on their policy trajectories, 530 million Africans will still lack electricity in 2030, the IEA report said. It said bringing reliable electricity to all Africans would require annual investment of around $120 billion.
“We’re talking about 2.5% of GDP that should go into the power sector,” Laura Cozzi, the IEA’s Chief Energy Modeller, told journalists ahead of the report’s launch.…
