As Europe, China, the US, Japan, and South Korea set a goal of zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or early in the second half of this century, hydrogen is getting more attention. Electrification and reducing carbon emissions from power generation are the basic ways to reduce CO2 emissions, but hydrogen energy is needed to reduce CO2 emissions from industries and large-scale transportation, where electrification is difficult. Furthermore, countries such as Japan, where renewable energy resources are limited and the use of nuclear power is difficult, need to import hydrogen energy in the form of ammonia or liquefied hydrogen from Australia and the Middle East, where renewable energy resources or fossil fuel and CCS resources are rich.
Mr. Satoshi Nakano is a Visiting Scholar of the Reischauer Center for East Asia Studies, the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. He has been an engineer for Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, TEPCO, since 1996. Last September, TEPCO dispatched him to the Reischauer Center. His specialty is bulk power system planning and he planned a TEPCO long-term power system plan that takes into account significant changes in supply and demand, aging, deregulation and depopulation after the Fukushima Daiichi accident (2014-2016). He is also familiar with future power technologies, planned a TEPCO technology strategy and took a leading role in 2050 vision review at the University of Tokyo (2017-18).
