LITTLETON, Colorado- Japan’s utilities are on track to boost clean electricity output to the highest levels in several years in 2024, after recording a 12.4 percent rise in clean power output over the first two months from the same period in 2023.
Clean electricity output during January and February totaled 52.67 terawatt hours (TWh) according to energy think tank Ember, the highest for that period in at least five years.
Japan’s power firms also cut fossil fuel-based generation over the opening two months of the year by 6 percent from the year before, to the lowest since 2019.
As a result, clean power sources supplied 31.6 percent of Japan’s electricity during the first two months of 2024, up from a 28 percent share at the same point in 2023.
With Japan’s peak solar and hydro output periods still ahead, utilities are in a position to potentially lift clean power generation even more in the coming months, likely to the highest levels since the country slashed nuclear output in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima accident.
During the first two months of 2024, solar power was the largest source of clean energy in Japan, generating just over 14 TWh of electricity.
Nuclear reactors (13.3 TWh), hydro dams (10 TWh) and bioenergy plants (9.5 TWh) were the next largest clean sources, followed by wind farms (4 TWh), Ember data shows.
All sources of clean generation posted increases over the same period in 2023, with nuclear, hydro and bioenergy sources registering double-digit growth.
