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■Yamanashi Press Tour ～Land of Clean Energy: Go for “ CO2-free Yamanashi”～（October 15, 2009） 

 

 

 

 

(Voice: Yamanashi Govenor Shomei Yokouchi)
Yamanashi Prefecture receives the most hours of sunlight per year in Japan, making the area an ideal location for solar energy generation. Surrounded by high mountains with steep rivers, the prefecture is also ideal for hydropower generation.

 

Yamanashi Govenor Shomei Yokouchi
With 80 % of its total land area covered by forests, the prefecture is also blessed with biomass resources.
We are rich in “clean energy”. Vigorously promoting clean energy, Yamanashi Prefecture is aiming to realize a “CO2-free” society by 2050.

 

 

【Solar Power Generation】

 

Hokuto City and NTT Facilities Co., Ltd. are working on a verification test for the promotion of a large-scale solar energy generation system as a project commissioned by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

 

The five-year project (fiscal 2006 to 2010) is researching how to overcome the output fluctuation problem of solar power generation due to weather conditions, as well as a comparative performance test of different solar power generation panels from around the world, and in the vast test field about 4,200 solar panels with a total capacity of 600 kW are spread out. When construction is completed in fiscal 2010, the total capacity will be up to 2 MW level.

 

Mr. Masashi Nagura, Solar Project Headquarters, NTT Facilities Co., Ltd.
This photovoltaic module has an inclination angle of 15°. The ones behind have 30° and 45° respectively. We are evaluating here how the difference of angles affects the efficiency of power generation.

 

 

【Civil Micro Hydro System “Genki-Kun #1”】 (Tsuru City)

 

Tsuru City, Yamanashi’s eastern town known as the “water town”, with a population of about thirty thousand, was among the first in the prefecture to work on “micro hydro power generation”. Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2004, the city built a civil micro hydro system “Genki-Kun #1” with a six-meter-diameter wooden wheel in front of the city hall as a symbol of the city.

 

With a maximum output of 20kw, “Genki-Kun #1” supplies 14 % of the electricity consumed in the city hall, and also greatly helps to enhance the local people’s environmental awareness. To promote civic participation, the city issued special bonds for local residents, named “Tsuru no Ongaeshi Bonds,” to cover part of the construction cost.

 

Mr. Kazunari Nakano, Policy Making Division, General Affairs Department, Tsuru City Office
We have a Japanese folktale titled “Tsuru no Ongaeshi” (The crane’s Gratitude), where a wounded crane, or Tsuru in Japanese, saved by a man, repays his kindness. Since the name of the city and “crane” in Japanese are pronounced the same, we named the bonds after the story, meaning this project is a “thank-you” from the whole city for the blessings of the earth.

 

 

【A Micro Hydroelectric Power Generation System “STREAM”】

 

Seabell International Co., Ltd, a venture company in Tokyo, has been carrying out a field test of its original current micro hydropower generation system “STREAM” in Tsuru City. It is a totally new hydropower generating system that floats on a stream and turns the water flow into energy. Because it can be installed wherever water is flowing, even in an almost flat waterway, “STREAM” is now in the spotlight to open up new possibilities for hydroelectric power generation.

 

 

【Woody Biomass】

 

(Voice: Mr. Hiroshi Ono, Director, Sustainable Society Promotion Division, Forestry and Environment Department, Yamanashi Prefecture)
Proper forest management, including thinning, is crucial for the healthy growth of trees, but currently some of thinned trees are just left scattered in forests and unused, creating a problem for the forest industry. We aim to pull out such trees from the forest, turn them into wood pellets, and utilize them to fuel devices such as boilers. 

 

Standing halfway up Mt. Yatsugatake, at an altitude of 1,400 meters, the training facility “Seisen Ryo” attracts more than 700,000 visitors every year as a symbol of Kiyosato with its exceptional landscape and rich natural surroundings. In April 2009, Seisen Ryo installed two wood pellet boilers, with an output of 240kw each. Wood pellets made in Yamanashi Prefecture, utilizing wood chips produced in the process of lumbering, are used to fuel the boilers. For the six months from April through September in 2009, the boilers reduced CO2 emissions by 171 tons compared with LPG boilers.

 

 

【Yamanashi Govenor Shomei Yokouchi】
The higher the national government sets its goal of CO2 emission reduction, the more CO2 will be reduced in Yamanashi Prefecture. With additional measures by our prefecture, a “CO2-free” society will be achieved even earlier.