Wanted: energy-cost perspective

I read with increasing frustration Eric Johnston's Jan. 2 article, "Nuclear motive suspected in feed-in tariff reforms," which is a bleat on behalf of the solar power industry. Perhaps Johnston should take a trip into the countryside and see what passes for green power in action. On Jan. 3, for example, while driving home from the dentist in Kitami, I passed seven solar farms within 15 minutes of my door. At each one, two hours before sunset, solar arrays were already entering shade.

Use them or not, we the power consumers of Japan are obligated to pay for the nuclear stations, coal stations, green stations, inefficiently sited solar arrays, wind power and bio-gas plants. These costs are crushing any hope of economic recovery and increased household purchasing power. It is like having two or three cars per driver parked at a house for show.

Is it too much to hope that The Japan Times will turn its considerable talents to covering how, who, what, where, when and why with regard to the failure or refusal of Japan's infallible bureaucracy to learn the lessons of Chernobyl and Three Mile Island? Why, for example, were safe nuclear sites 10 meters above sea level excavated down to sea level?

And how do wind projects end up missing a decimal point and losing money? How does a bio-gas plant end up costing so much and producing so little that it would take 650 years to break even? What of the plans to burn trees to generate power and the efficiencies involved?

As for solar power advocates, let them sign up customers who really pay for solar power instead of hiding behind feed-in tariffs, which make all of us pay for inefficient or bloated green costs. Let them pass the hat to buy up nuclear stations and decommission them. Let The Japan Times cover all of the costs of various forms of electric power generation.

The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.