Intensify its efforts to become carbon-neutral in 2050 despite the high cost

Japan is betting on hydrogen to revolutionize the energy market

Japan, the world's third-largest economy, has built an industrial base backed by imported oil, gas and coal, but is now planning to convert a large part of its energy sources to hydrogen, in one of the world's biggest bets on a rejected energy source as too costly and unrealistic.

carbon emissions

Experts told the Wall Street Journal that Japan's orientation towards change is a vital part of its plan and efforts to eliminate carbon emissions during the 30 years until 2050, noting that if it succeeds in laying the right foundation to allow hydrogen to become a single source of energy, it will manufacture Its previous leadership in the field of liquefied natural gas during the seventies of the last century will revolutionize the energy market.

Challenges The experts added, that hydrogen has been promoted before as a source of clean energy, but the economic and technical challenges are still great and must be overcome, expecting that Japan's approach and bet in switching towards hydrogen is a gradual process of moving away from fossil fuels over several years.

road map

They mentioned that last December, Japan published a preliminary roadmap for developing hydrogen as an energy source that provides about 10% of its electricity needs, but it is now working on a plan that includes hydrogen development and an estimate of the final cost of that.

budget

Experts noted that the Japanese government has more than doubled its budget for research and development in hydrogen-related fields to nearly $300 million over the past two years, noting that this figure does not include the millions invested by private companies.

They reported that Japan is building ships, gas stations and other infrastructure in such a way that hydrogen is a big part of everyday life.

plan

For its part, "JERA" Co., Ltd., which is the largest energy company in Japan, announced that it plans to use the "ammonia" compound in the production of hydrogen, as it signed a memorandum of understanding with one of the largest manufacturers of ammonia in the world.

main problem

The main problem with hydrogen is that it does not exist alone in nature, which means that it must be extracted from chemical compounds, such as water or fossil fuels, and the most common way to make hydrogen is by extracting it from natural gas or coal, but it produces a lot of carbon dioxide. .

Limited options

But Japan's circumstances mean that its options are limited. It imports about 90% of the energy it uses, has limited space to build solar or wind arrays, and Japan has closed most of its nuclear plants.

Advantages

Hydrogen has the advantage of being used in fuel cells, which contain more energy in the same amount of space than electric batteries, making hydrogen more suitable for aircraft or ships that have to transport power supplies over long distances.

Another important advantage of hydrogen for Japan is to reduce dependence on China, which is emerging as the world's largest supplier of solar panels and electric batteries, as China alone provides about 80% of the solar panels produced in the world.

• Japan plans to have hydrogen as an energy source that provides 10% of its electricity needs.

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