Governing the Fix: Energy Regimes, Accumulation Dynamics, and Land Use Changes in Japan’s Solar Photovoltaic Boom

Abstract

This article examines the role of recent reforms to Japan’s energy governance regime in stimulating fixed capital investments in solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and analyzes the investment trends and land use changes that are emerging as a result. Following the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, the Japanese government passed a feed-in tariff (FIT) to incentivize renewable energy production, followed by the liberalization of the small-scale retail power market. Although recent geographical scholarship suggests that fixed capital investments in renewable energy might function as a socioecological fix for capital accumulation, analyzing these reforms through the lens of institutional political economy reveals a crucial limitation facing investors seeking renewed accumulation through a socioecological fix: The state, as the extraeconomic agent charged with sustaining accumulation at the national scale, maintains the capacity to shape conditions of profitability in the electric power sector. Additionally, this article offers a typology of investment patterns and land use changes that have resulted from the growing market in renewables. The guaranteed return on investment offered by the FIT has stimulated demand for space to site solar projects. This demand, coupled with Japan’s strict farmland protections, has led investors to pursue projects in novel configurations that challenge established assumptions about power density and the land demands of solar PV. By bringing the insights of Marxian state theory to bear on the political ecology of fixed infrastructure, this article contributes an empirical analysis of the political ecological dimensions of state action in governing renewable energy transitions.

日本能源治理体制近期采取了改革措施, 以期刺激对太阳能光伏（PV）系统的固定资本投资本文探讨了这些改革措施的作用, 并分析了改革对投资趋势和土地用途带来的改变。在 2011 年 3 月的福岛核灾难之后, 日本政府通过批准上网电价（FIT）刺激可再生能源的生产, 随后放开了小型零售电力市场。尽管近期有地理学者认为, 对可再生能源的固定资产投资可作为一种资本积累的社会生态学方式, 但通过制度政治经济学的角度分析这些改革后, 显示投资者如果想要通过社会生态学手段寻求新的积累, 就会面临一个重要的局限问题：国家作为一个负责在全国范围内保持积累的超经济代表, 其具有塑造电力部门盈利条件的能力。此外, 本文根据可再生能源市场的增长, 提出一种投资模式和土地利用变化的类型。FIT 提供了有保证的投资回报, 刺激了对场地太阳能项目空间的需求。这种需求, 加上日本严格的农田保护措施, 让投资者开始寻找以新方法进行配置的项目, 这些方法挑战了对功率密度和太阳能光伏用地需求的既定假设。本文将马克思主义国家理论的观点引入到固定基础设施的政治生态学中, 从政治生态学的维度, 对可再生能源转型治理方面的国家行为进行实证分析。

Este artículo examina en papel que cumplen recientes reformas de la gobernanza energética del Japón para estimular inversiones de capital fijo en sistemas solares fotovoltaicos (PV), y analiza las tendencias de inversión y cambios de uso del suelo que surgen como resultado. Después del desastre nuclear de Fukushima, en marzo del 2011, el gobierno japonés aprobó una tarifa regulada (FIT) para incentivar la producción de energía renovable, decisión a la que siguió la liberalización del mercado energético minorista a pequeña escala. Aunque la erudición geográfica actual sugiere que las inversiones de capital fijo en energía renovable podrían funcionar como una prescripción socioecológica de acumulación capitalista, analizar estas reformas a través de la lente de la economía política institucional pone de manifiesto una limitación crucial que deben enfrentar los inversionistas que buscan acumulación renovada a través de una receta socioecológica: El estado, como el agente extraeconómico encargado de sostener la acumulación a escala nacional, mantiene la capacidad de configurar las condiciones de rentabilidad en el sector de la energía eléctrica. Adicionalmente, este artículo ofrece una tipología de patrones de inversión y cambios en el uso del suelo que resultan del incremento en el mercadeo de renovables. La ganancia garantizada de la inversión que ofrece la FIT ha estimulado la demanda de espacio para ubicar proyectos solares. Esta demanda, emparejada con las estrictas protecciones dispensadas en Japón a las tierras de cultivo, ha llevado a los inversionistas a emprender proyectos de configuraciones innovadoras que desafían los supuestos establecidos acerca de la densidad energética y las demandas de terreno para los PV solares. Trayendo a cuento las perspectivas de la teoría marxista del estado en lo que tienen que ver con la ecología política de la infraestructura fija, este artículo contribuye un análisis empírico de las dimensiones ecológicas políticas de la acción del estado para gobernar las transiciones a la energía renovable.

Key Words:

• energy transitions
• political ecology
• renewable energy
• socioecological fix
• state theory

关键词:

• 能源过渡
• 政治生态
• 可再生能源
• 社会生态修复
• 国家理论

Palabras clave:

• ecología política
• energía renovable
• receta socioecológica
• teoría del estado
• transiciones energéticas

Acknowledgments

I thank John Agnew for his encouragement in developing this article for publication, the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on earlier drafts, and James McCarthy for his indispensable editorial guidance. An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers, and I thank the session organizers for their comments. Finally, a special thanks to my hosts and interlocutors in Japan, to whom I remain forever indebted.

Notes

1 MITI was reorganized as METI as part of a reorganization of government ministries in 2002. Both acronyms are used to refer to the main government ministry involved in energy governance after World War II.

2 The bubble economy was a massive asset price bubble in Japan from 1986 to 1991 driven by speculation in stocks and real estate. Since its collapse, the Japanese economy has experienced decades of stagnation and low (or negative) growth. For more on the bubble economy, see Vogel (2006).

3 The nine regional monopolies expanded to ten with the reversion of Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972. For purposes of simplicity, this article deals only with the nine monopolies of the Japanese mainland.

4 Based on the author’s calculations from estimated output from megasolar projects and the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan, which estimates average household demand in Japan as 3,600 kWh/year.

5 Average land use footprints for solar PV installations in Japan were calculated from data on a variety of projects featured on Japanese solar developer Web sites. Area (ha)/Power Capacity (MW) yields an average of land use footprint 1.1 ha/MW to 1.7 ha/MW for solar PV installations. For instance, the Kirei Megasolar Plant has 235 MW capacity on 260 ha of land (“Setouchi Kirei Mega Solar” n.d.), and Renovac’s Itako Solar Plant in Ibaragi Prefecture has 14.7 MW capacity on 18 ha of land (http://www.renovainc.jp/business/power_plant/suigo-itako-solar).

Additional information

Funding

The research for this article was assisted by a Helin Research Travel Grant from the Department of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a doctoral dissertation research fellowship from the Japan Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Hudson Spivey

HUDSON SPIVEY is a Doctoral Candidate in the Department of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include the political economy of energy transitions and the socioenvironmental legacies of urbanization and infrastructure development in Japan.