Push for Solar Stumbles in Japan
日本推廣太陽能 碰到障礙
By Jonathan Soble

MAKURAZAKI, Japan – Rice fields, golf courses and even a disused airport runway. All over the southern Japanese region of Kyushu, unexpected places gleam with solar panels.
稻田、高球場，甚至已荒廢的機場跑道。日本南部的九州各處，太陽能板在料想不到的地方閃閃發光。

As part of an ambitious national effort to promote renewable energy, solar use in Japan has exploded over the last two years. But the technology’s future role is now in doubt.
日本在政府目光遠大的全國性再生能源推展計畫之下，兩年來太陽能的使用呈爆炸性成長。然而這種科技目前卻處於前途未卜的局面。

Utilities say their infrastructure cannot handle the swelling army of solar entrepreneurs intent on selling their power. And their willingness to invest more money depends heavily on whether the government remains committed to clean energy.
電力業者表示，自家的基礎設施無法負荷不斷增加的太陽能供應商。而電力業者是否願意繼續投資，則有很大一部分取決於政府是否繼續信守對潔淨能源的承諾。

“It’s upsetting,” said Junji Akagi, a real estate developer on Ukujima, a tiny island near Nagasaki. Mr. Akagi said he hoped to turn a quarter of the island’s 25-square-kilometer area into a “mega-solar” generating station.
「讓人很洩氣，」宇久島的房地產開發商赤木淳一如此表示。宇久島是位於長崎市附近的一個小島，他原本希望能將25平方公里大小的小島，四分之一面積轉變為百萬瓦級太陽能「Mega Solar」發電站（編者按：指輸電超過1Mega瓦，也就是1百萬瓦的發電設施，約為300戶一般家庭的用電量）。

But last September, Kyushu Electric Power Company abruptly announced that it would stop contracting to buy electricity from new solar installations. Other power companies in Japan soon followed suit.
但是去年九月，九州電力公司突然宣布將停止向新成立的太陽能業者議約購電。不久後，日本其他電力公司紛紛跟進。

“It was a shock,” Mr. Akagi said. “Now we don’t know if Kyushu Electric will buy our power.”
「這是個震撼，」淳一說：「現在我們不曉得九州電力還會不會買我們的電」。

The faltering solar boom is threatening an important goal for Japan as a whole: finding clean sources of power to replace the nuclear output lost after the Fukushima disaster four years ago. So far, the country has been relying mostly on fossil fuels like coal and natural gas to fill the gap, leading to sharply higher emissions of greenhouse gases.
太陽能發電的榮景受挫，危及全日本的重要目標：找到潔淨能源取代四年前福島核災後少掉的核電。迄今，日本大量依靠煤和天然氣等化石燃料填補供電缺口，導致溫室氣體排放量大增。

Some solar advocates fear the government is retreating from clean energy. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pushing to bring back into service some of the 50 nuclear reactors that were closed over safety concern. Many in Mr. Abe’s circle view solar as expensive and unreliable.
部分太陽能的擁護者擔心日本政府準備撤守開發潔淨能源的立場。五十多部核電機組基於安全考量停機，首相安倍晉三積極推動讓部分機組恢復運作。安倍身邊有不少人認為太陽能既昂貴又不可靠。

The government recently reduced the amount of clean power that utilities are required to buy from outside producers, and additional measures to curb supply are expected this spring, including cuts to price subsidies.
日本政府最近調降電力業者需要向外面廠商購買的潔淨能源數量，抑制供應量的進一步措施將於今春出爐，包括減少價格補貼。

Solar power here is costly for consumers because of high state-mandated prices, and handling the fluctuating output of thousands of mostly small solar producers is tricky for utilities.
日本政府將太陽能電價訂得很高，以致對消費者而言相當昂貴。而數以千計大多規模頗小的供電廠產量起伏甚大，也讓電力業者處理起來頗為棘手。

“The homework wasn’t done,” said Nobuo Tanaka, former executive director of the International Energy Agency. Utilities, he said, need to install more hardware – transmission cables, substations and the like – and develop new expertise to avoid disruptions.
「準備工作沒做好，」曾任國際能源總署署長的田中伸男表示，電力業者需要裝設更多硬體：電纜線、變電所等等，還得要開發新的專門技術防止供電中斷。

The problem is especially acute in Kyushu, where relatively plentiful sunshine and low land prices have attracted a disproportionate share of solar development.
問題在九州特別嚴重，日照比別處多，加上地價便宜，吸引超出比例的太陽能業者前來。

Installed solar capacity roughly doubled in the two years from mid-2012, when a law took effect requiring utilities to buy renewable energy from outside producers at rates far above market prices. By last summer it stood at 3.4 gigawatts, about equal to the output of three modern nuclear reactors – at least during those hours when the sun was at full strength.
要求電力業者以高於市價的價格向外部廠商購買再生能源的法令2012年年中生效以來，太陽能發電裝置的裝設容量大約倍增。去年夏天，在太陽最大的時段，發電量高達340萬瓩，相當於三座現代核電機組。

More challenging for electric-company planners is what is in the pipeline. An additional 8.4 gigawatts’ worth of projects, including Mr. Akagi’s on Ukujima, have received government approval. That is far too much for Kyushu Electric’s grid to handle without the risk of failures, the utility argues.
對電力公司企劃者更大的挑戰是籌辦中的發電案。包括淳一的宇久島發電計畫在內，已獲政府核准的發電計畫共將再產生840萬瓩電力，九州電力公司表示這已超出該公司電網的負荷，恐有斷電之虞。

Solar projects have already changed the landscape and economy in Kyushu. The largest ones, like the Nanatsushima Mega-Solar Power Plant in Kagoshima, which opened in 2013, cover areas bigger than 100 soccer fields.
太陽能發電計畫已經改變九州的景觀與經濟。最大的電廠以2013年啟用的鹿兒島七島百萬瓦級太陽能發電所為例，占地面積超過100座足球場。

In Makurazaki, a remote city in Kagoshima, the local airport went unused for a decade, a victim of economic and population decline. Now its 1,300-meter runway is covered end to end with solar panels.
在鹿兒島偏遠的枕崎市，受到經濟和人口下滑衝擊，有座機場10年不曾使用。1,300公尺長的跑道現在鋪滿太陽能板。

According to the government, if every solar plant now on the drawing board were actually to be built, it would cost users 2.7 trillion yen a year in special charges, or about $23 billion, four times the premium they’re paying now.
照政府說法，假如計畫中的太陽能電廠全都建成，用戶每年將支出2.7兆日圓（約2,300億美元）的綠電電費差額，是現在的四倍。

Solar supporters say the money would at least remain in the Japanese economy. Higher energy bills related to the nuclear shutdown are already being blamed for squeezing household budgets.
太陽能的支持者說，起碼這些錢還是留在日本國內經濟內。核電廠停機導致電費增加，已被指為家戶預算緊縮的罪人。

Rather than curtail the expansion of solar power, what is needed, advocates for the technology say, is a broader shake-up of Japan’s electricity market.
支持者說，與其縮減太陽能的擴張計畫，更需要做的是對日本電力市場進行更大規模的改組。

A bill now in Parliament would force Japan’s 10 regional utilities to split their generation and transmission operations into legally separate businesses. Some say the plan does not go far enough.
送進國會的一個法案強制日本10個區域的綜合電力業者，將發電與輸配電業務分割成法律上獨立的事業體。有人認為如此改革不夠徹底。

“These 10 monopolies will still own the grid,” said Tom O’Sullivan, a Tokyo-based energy consultant. “It will still be very difficult for independent power companies to get their electricity into the grid.”
東京的能源顧問湯姆．歐蘇利文說：「10家電力公司依然擁有電網，獨立的電力公司要將自家發的電送進電網仍然非常困難。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/04/business/international/japans-solar-power-growth-falters-as-utilities-balk.html

2015-03-24聯合報/G9版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 張佑生譯 原文參見紐時週報八版