Friday, April 13, 2012

Blog #12: Will Japan Follow Germany's Path to Green Energy?


            Due to the earthquake and tsunami that led fifty-three nuclear plants to shut down temporary, Japan is going towards the direction what Germany is aiming for.  Germany is force on their technology on green energy and Japan wants that opportunity to have that certain technology for their country.  After the disaster, Japan was able to shut off their nuclear plants without having a blackout due to emergency energy saving programs and using more fossil fuels, but the country does not want to miss out the chance in technical innovation and forced to change their ways so they can advance its technology.  Miranda Screurs, a director of the Environment Policy Research Centre at the Freie Universitat Berlin said, “Although Japan is way behind Germany on renewable and was slipping in energy-efficiency advances before Fukushima (earthquake and tsunami).”  Then she argues the Japan has the motivation and the technology to transfer from nuclear power to green energy. 
            My thoughts about this situation is Japan may have a chance to create green energy but what Miranda Screurs said, the country is long journey to catch up with Germany’s green technology.  Since Japan shuts down their power plants from the natural disasters of the earthquake and tsunami, this project will be tougher for Japan than Germany because twenty-three percent of its electricity came for nuclear power so it will be stressful for Japan to achieve that goal.  I believe Japan can overcome this struggle and help their environment with green technology by following the path of Germany.

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