Tokyo Tower has been crushed by Godzilla more times than I can count. Its presence silently locates any scene in Tokyo. While not always visible in the midst of a skyline filled with high-rises and skyscrapers, its orange and white figure is instantly recognizable. Built as a broadcast station in 1958, it is illuminated every night and broadcasts television and radio (analog and digital) 24/7.
The Institute of Industrial Science of Tokyo University, widely regarded as the top university in Japan, has erected a “smart house” on their Komaba Campus, in cooperation with LIXIL Housing Corporation’s Eyeful Home Company. The current structure, the COMMA house (COMfort MAnagement), is the start of a series of prototypes and tests geared toward creating more-or-less self-sufficient home. The project is expected to have plans for a standard smart house by 2020.
Fuji Xerox (a partnership between Japanese Fuji Photo and American Xerox) announced that its integrated recycling system located in Suzhou, China has managed a 99.8% recycling rate in fiscal year 2010, qualifying it as a so-called “zero waste” facility.
The field of solar energy is changing rapidly, with new research, ideas, and results abounding on all sides. One of the many frontiers is the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (also known as ETH Zurich, for brevity), where researchers are exploring nanotechnology and the production of hydrogen directly from sunlight.
Electric cars have giant batteries (useful for a number of things besides driving the actual car, even). Also under consideration as the primary power source for electric cars (and buses, motorcycles, yachts, etc.) is the lithium ion capacitor.
There’s been a lot of talk about using biomass to supply energy lately. While firewood is the most common source of energy in the EU, fruits and even hay are under consideration. The company Strasser Stone in St. Martin — the largest to work with natural stone in Austria — is one of the proponents of wood as fuel.
The Japanese company DNP Social Link has launched a smartphone application which allows users to monitor electricity usage in the home. The application, called “Total Power Saving,” is free to download for DNP Social Link’s customers in Japan.
Carports and garages are both perfectly serviceable structures to protect your car. We’re talking about carports here, though, so we’re just going to mention that they’re cheap, easy to build, and have great air circulation.
There’s one more advantage to a German carport – it’s incredibly simple to roof it over with solar panels and let solar energy pay for the carport.
Tokyo City proper has again decided to incorporate recent energy saving and renewable energy technology, calling it “Tokyo Specifications for Reduced and Renewable Energy.”
In Hiroshima Prefecture, both the city of Fukuyama and the private sector are pushing forward with a futuristic “Eco Town.” In the midst of interest in natural sources of energy, following the nuclear incident in TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, an attempt is being made to acquire and market local “know-how” as quickly as possible to other prefectures in order to stimulate regional revitalization.
