Source: CNN
Author: Sarah Lazarus
Japan’s relationship with the energy sector is, at best, complicated.
Having virtually no oil, coal or natural gas to fire its power plants, Japan was forced to import over 90% of its energy in 2014. It is the world’s third largest importer of oil and coal, and the number one importer of liquefied natural gas.
In 2016, its gas bill was $28.9 billion.
Furthermore, its 50-plus nuclear reactors, once considered a brilliant solution to its energy resource dearth, today mostly stand idle following the devastating Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdown, in 2011.
But Japanese scientists may have found an innovative end to the country’s energy woes.
They are pioneering a new technology that could reshape the global energy industry. Even better, a technology that revolves around a resource which Japan has in abundance buried under the ocean.
The Japanese government wants to burn “flammable ice” for energy.
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