The organization is sponsoring a Learning Journey in Tohoku which aims to offer students from both Tohoku and other parts of the world a learning journey; to observe change in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake and today. They will meet and listen to people who experienced the disaster and are working for the recovery of the disaster-affected area. At the end of the journey, there will be an opportunity to report what they have learned in the disaster area, and to present their hopes and dreams for creating a sustainable society in the future.

It sounds like a great opportunity to go abroad, learn firsthand, and think about how the area can comeback from disaster in a sustainable way. Here are the instructions for overseas students.

[Image]

This marks a remarkable change in electricity production for Japan. Before last year’s earthquake and tsunami, a third of the country’s energy came from nuclear power. For decades, nuclear power was a huge part of Japan’s energy policies and also became a major part of Japan’s plan to meet its bold carbon emissions reduction targets. With the loss of nuclear energy, the Ministry of Environment projects that Japan will produce about 15 percent more greenhouse gas emissions this fiscal year than it did in 1990.

Until the Fukushima disaster last year, Tokyo had planned to expand the amount of overall electricity produced by fission to half of all production by 2030. Since last year’s meltdown, however, citizen opposition to nuclear power has run high. Japan requires new tests on withstanding quakes and tsunamis, and it needs local residents’ approval to restart reactors. No reactor stopped for stress tests or maintenance has gone back on line.

Political and business leaders are worried about summer energy shortages and the effect it could have on the economy. Critics of Japan’s nuclear policy maintain that not enough has been done to improve nuclear safety standards. To make up for the shortage of fuel to produce electricity, Japan has ramped up imports of costly natural gas, but it is not certain that those imports will be able to keep up with demand with the hot and humid Japanese summer right around the corner.

This all underscores the difficulty in providing electricity to meet demand while reducing emissions without the use of nuclear power. Germany will be another interesting country to watch as they voluntarily shift to nuclear free production.

[Image]

Municipalities in Japan occasionally use weed-control mats over soil to keep unused or sloped areas of land free of weeds. Were they to substitute the usual mats with the solar ones, weeds could still be kept at bay while generating some electricity. The mats are thin, lightweight, and flexible and therefore can be easily installed on inclines, embankments, and levees. Possible application could also include unused and sloped areas and alongside roads, railroad tracks, and rivers throughout Japan.

Getting the electricity from the mats to a location or device that could use the power remains a main obstacle it seems to me; perhaps use underground lines since the mats are already on the ground? However, the innovation and creativity combined with technical know-how bodes well for figuring out this and other challenges that come with integrating new energy sources into our current infrastructure.

[Image]

“The report reveals that 34 industries in the industrial and energy- conversion sectors that participated in the 2011 follow-up together emitted 443.47 million tons of CO2 in fiscal 2010, a 12.3 percent decrease from 1990, but a 5.3 percent increase from 2009. Looking at individual industries, 24 industries reduced CO2 emissions when compared to fiscal 1990, while 11 did so when compared to 2009.”

There is no information on how much money was saved or spent in reaching the lower CO2 levels. The full Keidanren report, however, is loaded with industry break downs and other data.

[Image]

Seven-Eleven is now going to try to reduce the energy use from the grid and save some cash by testing air-conditioning systems that use geothermal energy. In Japan’s first test case for using geothermal heat in convenience stores, three Seven-Eleven stores to open in three regions (9 total) of Kanto, Kansai and Kyushu will experiment with the technology.

According to JFS, “introducing the geothermal air-conditioning system called GeoTOPIA is expected to reduce both electricity consumption and CO2 emissions in the stores by about 30 percent compared with existing levels.”

The image below explains the basic idea of the system.

[Image]