石炭火力発電 安定供給と環境対策の両立を

>　安全の確認できた原発を着実に再稼働させ、
まだこんなことをいっているのか！
原発が自然災害に勝てないのは福島で実証されている。
民間活力をそぐような愚策には違和感を覚える。
石炭発電の排出二酸化炭素量を減らす技術開発にお金をかけるほうが、まだまし。

The Yomiuri Shimbun
Coal-powered plants part of balance between stable supply, environment
石炭火力発電　安定供給と環境対策の両立を

How to strike a balance between stable power supply and measures against global warming? The government needs to present a path to this goal.
　電力の安定供給と地球温暖化対策をどう両立させていくか。政府が道筋を示す必要がある。

Environment Minister Yoshio Mochizuki has put holds on private-sector coal-fired power plant construction projects one after another.
　民間の石炭火力発電所の建設計画に、望月環境相が相次いで待ったをかけた。

Regarding projects in Aichi and Chiba prefectures, Mochizuki submitted written opinions to Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yoichi Miyazawa on Aug. 14 and 28, respectively, saying that they “cannot be approved” based on the Environmental Impact Assessment Law. Regarding a project in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Mochizuki presented a similar written opinion in June.
　愛知、千葉両県内の建設計画について、８月１４日と２８日に、それぞれ環境影響評価法に基づき、「是認できない」とする意見書を宮沢経済産業相に提出した。山口県での計画に対しても、６月に同様の意見書を出している。

With its low fuel cost, coal-fired thermal power is an effective source of electricity. But it produces twice as much greenhouse gas as power generation using liquefied natural gas.
　石炭火力は燃料費の安い有用な電源だが、液化天然ガスの２倍近い温室効果ガスを排出する。

If new construction projects are approved easily, it will make it difficult to achieve the government’s target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent from the figure for fiscal 2013 by fiscal 2030. It is no wonder that the environment minister has a heightened sense of crisis as coal-fired thermal power plants are planned in turn.
　安易に新設を認めれば、温室効果ガスの排出量を２０３０年度までに２６％削減する政府目標の達成は困難だ。全国で石炭火力が次々に計画される中、環境相が危機感を強めるのも無理はない。

The government has put forth a policy of lowering the percentage of coal-fired power generation within the nation’s total electricity sources from the current 30 percent to 26 percent in 2030. However, major utility firms and new entrants have shown moves to build additional coal-fired thermal plants.
　政府は３０年の電源構成として、石炭火力の比率を、現在の３０％から２６％に引き下げる方針を示している。だが、大手電力や新規事業者は、コストが安く競争力の高い石炭火力の増設に動いている。

Coal-fired thermal power is a stable baseload electricity source as it can be generated day and night. Since the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, it has sustained the power supply in the face of a crisis caused by the suspension of all domestic nuclear power plants. It is natural for all utilities to rely on coal-fired power generation under such circumstances.
　石炭火力は、昼夜を問わず発電できる安定したベースロード電源だ。東日本大震災以降、原発不在の危機的な電力供給を支えた。電力各社が石炭火力を頼りにするのは、当然と言えよう。

While newly building up-to-the-minute coal-fired thermal power plants that discharge less greenhouse gas, it is essential to abolish superannuated facilities with poor power generation efficiency one after another.
　温室効果ガス排出量の少ない最新の石炭火力を新設する一方、発電効率の悪い老朽設備を順次、廃棄することが肝心である。

No clear control tower

It is problematic, however, that there is no clear control tower that makes adjustments on new construction and abolition projects to realize the optimal composition of electricity sources.
　問題なのは、新設と廃棄の具体的な計画を調整し、最適な電源構成を実現させるための司令塔が不明確なことだ。

It strikes us as strange that the environment minister puts the brakes on construction of individual coal-fired thermal projects in the name of environmental impact assessments. The industry and environment ministries must coordinate views with major utilities and new entrants in the private sector and present concrete and desirable ways to expand the system to secure electricity sources.
　環境相が、環境影響評価の名目で、個別の建設計画にブレーキをかける手法には違和感がある。経産省と環境省が民間の大手電力や新規事業者と調整し、具体的な電源整備の在り方を示すべきだ。

Also important is the role played by the Organization for Cross-regional Coordination of Transmission Operators, which has been established to coordinate power supply and demand on a nationwide basis.
　全国的な電力需給調整を担うために新設された電力広域的運営推進機関の役割も重要である。

It cannot be overlooked that construction plans on coal-fired power plants with a capacity of less than 112,500 kilowatts, which are not subject to the mandatory environmental impact assessment, have emerged at random. But this cannot be helped even if this is regarded as evasion of regulations.
　環境影響評価の対象外である１１・２５万キロ・ワット未満の石炭火力の建設計画が乱立していることは、看過できない。規制逃れとみられても仕方がない。

To prevent the abuse of legal loopholes, the Environment Ministry reportedly plans to expand environmental impact assessments to cover small-scale coal-fired power plants. The industry ministry, for its part, is considering tightening controls with a view to promoting the introduction of highly efficient facilities. Highly practical measures are called for to prevent additional coal-fired power plants from being built too easily.
　環境省は抜け穴を防ぐため、評価対象を小規模施設に拡大する方針という。経産省も高効率な設備の導入を促進するための規制強化を検討している。安易な石炭火力の増設を食い止めるため、実効性の高い対策が求められる。

One way to prevent excessive reliance on coal as an energy source would be for nuclear reactors to be restarted steadily after their safety is confirmed and for the government to present a policy of building new nuclear power stations.
　安全の確認できた原発を着実に再稼働させ、政府が原発新増設の方針を明示することが、過度な石炭依存を防ぐことになる。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Sept. 5, 2015)