Japan’s Fukushima to rise again as a renewable power hub

How’s this for one of the greatest comebacks in history? Fukushima, the infamous nuclear power plant ravaged by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, will be transformed into a renewable power hub, a report by Nikkei revealed on Sunday.

As farmers are unable to grow crops on the site, 10 solar plants and 11 wind power plants will be built on the area surrounding the former nuclear plant.

A new power grid is set to be built within Fukushima too which will allow the distribution of the estimated 600MW of generated power to Tokyo’s thriving metropolis, the report adds.

In comparison, South Africa’s lone nuclear power plant, Koeberg, produces around 1940MW of electricity.

The project is set to cost at least $2.7-billion.

The fallout from the Fukushima disaster continues to haunt Japan some eight years later.

In September, The Guardian revealed that the plant still houses more than a million tonnes of radioactive water, which may be dumped into the Pacific Ocean.

However, the country has since weaned itself off nuclear power.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, Japan produced 27% of its power from nuclear sources prior to 2011. As of August 2019, that number has dropped to 1.7%, according to the World Nuclear Association. Renewables count for more than 10%.

While Japan still grapples with the ramifications of a nuclear disaster in the present, it’s encouraging that it’s also thinking about the future.

Feature image: Jun Teramoto via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0, resized)