The Japanese government released an estimate on Tuesday that in order to completely end the country’s use of nuclear power by the year 2030, it would take an investment of 50 trillion yen (approx. $637.4 billion) in renewable energies. This information was presented at meeting to determine Japan’s future energy policy, and what it would take to go nuclear-free. Motohisa Furukawa, the national policy minister was in attendance, along with other member’s of Prime Minister Noda’s Cabinet, who said the final details of the new energy plan should be completed by next week.
Among the other true costs of phasing out nuclear power by 2030 include a near doubling of household’s monthly energy bills, from the 16,900 yen ($215) in 2010, to an average of 32,243 yen ($411). Also needed would be Japan’s energy coming from renewable sources, such as solar and wind, to add up to 350 billion kilowatt-hours by 2030, a huge increase of the 106 billion kwh generated in 2010.
In trying to decide on the target dates for reaching amounts of nuclear power usage, including none at all, the government calculated that if it reached 15% by 2030, it would still cost 40 trillion yen ($510 billion) in investments to reach 300 billion kwh generated from renewable sources. This would raise the household energy bill to 29,290 yen ($373) per month.
[via Jiji]