A government forecast, it said that power output would grow from 1 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) projected for the current decade to about 1.35-1.5 trillion kWh in 2050 to meet demand.
Japan, like many other leading economies, is looking to open more data centres, semiconductor factories and other energy-consuming businesses – all of which will require large-scale investments in power sources.
The worry, highlighted by this report, is that if Japan is unable to significantly increase renewable energy output, a stable supply of power could be uncertain.
It comes at a time when the Japanese government has started to pull together a new decarbonisation and industrial policy.
Japan, which relies heavily on fossil fuel supplies, last year passed a law that promotes decarbonisation investments totalling more than 150 trillion yen ($962 billion) in the public and private sectors over the next 10 years.
Japan is said to be looking to move from fossil fuels to next-generation solar cells, known as perovskite solar cells, floating offshore wind farms, and the restarting of nuclear power plants and the introduction of next-generation reactors.
The impact of AI is certainly enormous, but the issue of energy consumption and AI's appetite for electricity comes at a time when the global energy system is struggling to adapt.
