As decommissioning slowly progresses at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant nearly 15 years after the 2011 meltdowns, the surrounding area is testing a new type of energy: hydrogen power.
Less than 30 kilometers up the coast from the nuclear plant, the Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Field (FH2R) features tall, clean-white hydrogen tanks alongside a hydrogen generation facility. Trailers for shipping hydrogen by truck wait nearby, decorated with a colorful design by local schoolchildren and the words “Let’s weave the future with hydrogen from Fukushima.”
The pilot facility is managed by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), in collaboration with private companies.
Since March 2020, FH2R has used renewable energy to produce hydrogen, a fuel that doesn’t emit greenhouse gas emissions when burned. It has helped power fuel-cell vehicles and businesses in the local community, and was even shipped for use in Tokyo.
Although hydrogen has never been widely used as a fuel — energy is required to produce hydrogen in the first place — Japan is keen to pioneer hydrogen power as a way to decarbonize transportation, industrial processes and gas power plants.
Although many of the lessons learned at FH2R will help shape the “hydrogen society” that Japan hopes to build, FH2R’s model of locally produced “green” hydrogen using renewable energy doesn’t fully represent the national government’s strategy. In addition to green hydrogen, Japan supports hydrogen produced using fossil fuels, an approach criticized by environmental advocates as having little value as a climate change countermeasure.
To stimulate both supply and demand, the national government is providing significant financial support for the development of hydrogen-related technologies and infrastructure.
| Annelise Giseburt
Fukushima, meanwhile, has positioned itself as a leader in decarbonizing the power sector: The prefecture has committed to meeting all its energy needs with renewables by around 2040, far ahead of national targets. This raises the question: What role can newcomer hydrogen play in the prefecture’s energy and economic future?
‘A symbolic project’
FH2R is located in the town of Namie, which was completely evacuated following the 2011 nuclear disaster. Evacuation orders were lifted for part of the town in 2017.
At FH2R and collaborating sites in Namie, NEDO and partner corporations — Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions, Tohoku Electric Power and Iwatani — are testing hydrogen production technology, infrastructure and control systems. The facility uses renewable electricity generated by on-site solar panels to produce hydrogen from water, a process called electrolysis.
Plans to use Fukushima’s coastal area to develop hydrogen began over a decade ago. One year after the 2011 nuclear accident, the prefecture committed to meet all its energy needs through renewables by around 2040. Then, the 2016 “Fukushima Plan for a New Energy Society,” prepared by a public-private entity under the auspices of the economy ministry, emphasized both renewables and hydrogen and noted that clean energy could drive the buildup of industry in the coastal area impacted by the triple disaster.
Namie was selected to host FH2R “because it was deemed to offer a suitable environment for advancing research and development,” says Koji Masumoto, deputy director of NEDO’s Hydrogen and Ammonia Department.
FH2R is “a symbolic project that showcases Japan’s hydrogen technology and the region’s revitalization to those both in Japan and overseas,” he adds.
But does Fukushima itself need hydrogen? Because hydrogen is created using energy, it’s naturally more expensive than using renewable power directly.
And the prefecture is already making good progress toward meeting all its energy needs through renewables like solar, wind and hydro power by around 2040, with projections showing electricity demand decreasing over the coming years. In fact, hydrogen — as a secondary energy source — does not figure into the 2040 renewables target at all.
The key challenge remaining for the Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Field is to reduce the high costs of producing hydrogen.
| Annelise Giseburt
But that doesn’t mean the prefectural government considers hydrogen unimportant — quite the opposite.
“Surplus renewable energy caused by fluctuations in weather-dependent (solar and wind) power generation can be converted into hydrogen and stored,” explains Ryutaro Nagai, deputy director of Fukushima Prefecture’s Next Generation Industry Division. He says hydrogen can actually support the further adoption of renewable energy, because “it can help ‘balance’ power supply to the grid, enhancing the potential for renewable energy deployment.”
There are economic benefits for Fukushima as well, provided the national government continues subsidizing hydrogen until it becomes commercially competitive.
“Hydrogen is compatible with long-term storage and long-distance transportation, allowing value to be provided outside the region. It leads to the creation of new industries and employment, contributing to regional economic revitalization,” Masumoto says.
Green hydrogen headwinds
As part of its verification tests, FH2R provides hydrogen for local use in three main areas: fuel-cell vehicles, power generation for facilities via fuel cells and as a source of clean energy for manufacturing.
For example, hydrogen fuel cells help supply electricity for lights, air conditioning and hot water at Namie’s roadside rest stop. Official cars and a grocery delivery service use hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Hydrogen has also been supplied to a factory in Fukushima, to test its use in industry.
Masumoto says this model of local production and consumption is one of FH2R’s main achievements to date.
But it’s still in its early days — a 2025 prefectural government document notes that most hydrogen projects across Fukushima are implemented by major corporations rather than local businesses and that, overall, the market remains immature.
Japan’s hydrogen ambitions go far beyond the scale of initiatives implemented to date. In addition to fuel cells, the central government and industry plan to use hydrogen in thermal power plants as a substitute for natural gas. The country is expected to require 20 million tons of hydrogen per year by 2050.
The Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Field and an adjoining solar farm in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, in March 2021.
| REUTERS
Government and industry hope that hydrogen will not only help decarbonize Japan’s heavy-emitting sectors but also boost the country’s “economic growth and enhanced international industrial competitiveness.” As Japan is one of the only countries planning such wide-ranging hydrogen applications, Japanese manufacturers developing fuel-cell vehicles and hydrogen infrastructure technologies stand to profit if their approach is adopted overseas. At the same time, hydrogen enables major utilities and fossil fuel giants to continue emitting CO2 with their existing assets as it is slowly introduced.
To stimulate both supply and demand, the national government is providing significant financial support for the development of hydrogen-related technologies and infrastructure, earmarking ¥3 trillion (approximately $19 billion) for hydrogen subsidies over 15 years. It is little wonder that an increasing number of hydrogen projects are springing up across the country, not only in Fukushima.
Although the majority of Japan’s hydrogen is expected to be produced domestically up to 2030, while the industry is still finding its feet, over two-thirds of Japan’s hydrogen supply is likely to be imported by 2050.
Some of both the domestic and imported hydrogen will be produced using fossil fuels in combination with carbon capture, another expensive and unproven technology.
Government support for this so-called blue hydrogen has been criticized by various environmental groups.
Swiss nonprofit Green Hydrogen Organization, for example, notes that while Japan’s national government “has favoured blue hydrogen due to its purported lower initial costs and faster scalability,” blue hydrogen risks becoming a stranded asset. Meanwhile, Friends of the Earth Japan and others have insisted that fossil fuel-derived hydrogen (and its derivative ammonia) “have little effectiveness in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”
Tetsuo Munakata, director of the Hydrogen Energy Research Institute at Fukushima University, says that green and blue hydrogen are, at present, both important in terms of actually having hydrogen available to use.
“However,” he continues, “to build a sustainable society, green hydrogen produced from renewable energy, without relying on fossil fuels, will be important going forward. We estimate that the hydrogen used in Fukushima, which is rich in natural resources, will be mainly green hydrogen.”
Expansion continues
Although FH2R’s green hydrogen model may not represent all of Japan’s hydrogen plans, the pilot project has “achieved results in parts of Japan’s hydrogen strategy” such as technological development, power supply balance, and establishing regional supply chains, Masumoto says. “The project is progressing according to plan.”
The key challenge remaining, he acknowledges, is reducing hydrogen’s production costs.
Fukushima University’s Munakata lists other barriers toward widespread utilization. “The control of hydrogen’s properties (it’s highly flammable), the high cost of hydrogen utilization equipment, the shortage of green hydrogen and the lack of hydrogen infrastructure are challenges,” he notes.
Still, he believes “Fukushima can contribute to the realization of a hydrogen society in Japan by achieving results that enable its various advanced initiatives to be replicated across the country.”
Indeed, prefectures and municipalities in other parts of Japan are introducing green hydrogen too, in collaboration with corporate partners and the national government. Another NEDO-funded green hydrogen plant began operations in Yamanashi Prefecture last fall, while the use of green hydrogen is being actively explored in Hokkaido.
With both green and fossil-derived hydrogen projects still in their early stages, it remains to be seen which models will prove successful in the long run — although, as the planet warms, time is not on Japan’s side.
Environmental advocates like the Green Hydrogen Organization would like to see Japan continue to back projects like FH2R.
“If the Japanese government is intent on becoming a ‘hydrogen society,’” it states, “we challenge it to become a ‘green and truly low-carbon hydrogen society.’”
A portion of the reporting for this story, specifically a guided tour of the FH2R facility, was funded by the Fukushima Innovation Coast Framework, a project supported by the national government.