Tokyo will soon require domestic electricity companies to buy surplus solar power generated by households at about twice the current price.

The plan will come into effect as early as April the start of Japan’s new fiscal year. Tokyo wants to promote solar power as part of Japan’s efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

“Japan has already led solar power technology in the world. With the scheme, we would like to firmly secure the lead.”

Japan’s utility companies now voluntarily buy surplus electricity from domestic solar panels. A bill will go to parliament to make buying mandatory for power companies at double the current price. Homeowners will be able to recover the initial cost of installing photovoltaic cell systems quicker and more homes will be encouraged to install solar panels.

Japan has pledged a 10-fold increase in solar power use by 2020 from today’s level and offer solar power systems at half the current price within four years.

Japan is badly behind in meeting its own targets under the Kyoto Protocol. With this new scheme, they will start catching up, or else.

Image courtesy of lcrf

If you're new here and you like our articles, how about subscribing free for our updates via RSS feed.

Japan’s greenhouse gas emissions hit a record high making Japan the world’s fifth-largest CO2 producer and putting them at risk of an embarrassing failure to meet its Kyoto target over the next four years. The increase of 2.3 percent last year was largely due to the closure of Japan’s biggest nuclear power plant after an earthquake.

Emissions rose to 1.371 billion metric tons of CO2 equivalent in the Japanese fiscal year through March. The year before Japan finally saw a decline of 1.3 percent decline. Japan needs to cut emissions by an estimated 13.5 percent to hit its 2008-2012 target under Kyoto of down 6 percent from 1990 levels.

The task of cutting emissions may be its worst since the onset of a global recession, a diversion of governments’ focus away from climate change the investment needed.

Japan is not going to make their goal.

Source: Yahoo!

The latest data about Japan’s greenhouse-gas emissions cast a serious doubt over the Japan’s commitment to its Kyoto Protocol efforts.

The Environment Ministry reported Japan’s emissions hit a record high of carbon dioxide, 8.7% more than what Japan spewed in 1990. The 1997 Kyoto treaty calls for Japan to reduce its emissions to 6% BELOW the 1990 level. Japan is going the wrong way.

Emissions grew 2.3% since last year, largely in part to the closing of Japan’s largest nuclear power plant in Niigata Prefecture because of an earthquake in the region. Consequently, Japan has had to rely on electrical output from thermal power plants, which are heavy CO2 dischargers. Japanese households have produced 8.4% more greenhouse gases than last year. The unusually hot summer led to increased use of air conditioners.

In the next five years they needs to cut its emissions by 13.5% to meet its commitment and Japan’s best bet is either to plant more trees or increase the capacity utilization ratio of its nuclear power plant, up from 60.7%. A ratio 84.2% (1998), and Japan would have coughed up 5% less greenhouse gas in 2007.

The economy, however, is slowing. As production falls, so too will emissions. Japan needs to cut 50 million metric tons, per year. The steel industry lowered its emissions last year to 1% below its 1990 level despite an 8% increase in crude steel output. The chemical sector is 7% higher than its 1990 figure.

Japan is not going to make it. So, now what?

Source: Nikkei (sub req)
Image courtesy of hubbbadyabutters

There is always the eternal question of who do we exactly dub as a genius and what is the scale to measure and tag someone as a genius. While views vary widely, one of the most accepted theory is that and man who thinks way ahead of his time in his methods and approach, can be called a genius.

Taking that into consideration, you could surely call Swedish architect Bengt Warne a genius in the field of environment. It was way back in 1976 that Bengt built a home in a greenhouse in an effort to grow vegetables around his own home. Though, three decades after the initial prototype, the idea seems to be a catching one.

Scandinavian winters can be cold and unforgiving and while people have a separate greenhouse to grow vegetables and plants, Bengt’s design calls for building a greenhouse around your own home. With this innovative technique one not only manages space better but energy is conserved enormously. Energy consumption in the form of electricity is reduced by 50% with this method as the vegetation offers a natural insulation to the house and thereby reduces the necessity for artificial heating.

The idea is really simple, easy to implement and for 1976- way ahead of its time. Surely, we can adopt it three decades down the line! Check out the gallery after the break. (more…)

It seems there is an intelligent greenhouse (as opposed to a stupid one, I reckon) in Tianjin, China. The greenhouse is built to show off new agricultural technologies like soilless culture and drip irrigation.

Huge pumpkin growing in an intelligent greenhouse in Tianjin

The greenhouse is meant to be a model of modern sightseeing agriculture. It grows huge sweet potatoes, enough lettuce to clothe hundreds of PETA girls and the world’s largest potential Halloween Pumpkin. So, if a pumpkin is raised in an intelligent greenhouse, does that make it an intelligent pumpkin? And a pumpkin grown in a patch, what kind of pumpkin would that be? – via Sina

Here’s another new discovery towards the green revolution! Rolls Royce has come up with a brilliant modified version of an open rotor propeller plane installed with a less noise making engine as opposed to its original loud engine.

The engine has been tested with results showing a remarkable cut down on greenhouse gas emissions to 30% and also a great save on fuel costs as compared to the modern turbo jet engines.

Although CO2 from airplanes is barely 2-3% of the total global emissions, the rate of travel has gone up by 6-7% with the airline travel efficiency making improvements of only 1% a year. As solar planes are not being thought upon in the near future, the propeller plane is a feasible option for increasing travel efficiency and cutting down on fuel consumption.

Apart from Rolls Royce, General Electric, Pratt & Whitney and Snecma are also venturing upon the open rotor propeller plane. – via GreenDaily

Image courtesy of Moritz Josch

Among other things known about Sahara Desert, we can easily add another one. It’s probably the weirdest place in the world, to grow food mainly because there’s a lot of … umm, desert, because there’s no freshwater but only seawater and because plants don’t usually like excessive heat. And yes, Sahara is the hottest of all deserts.

But what do I know? Technology these days can and will change the way we grow food. The Sahara Forest project (pdf link!!) is planning to build vast greenhouses that will use mirrors to focus the sun’s rays and generate heat and electricity, which would lead to cooler air (humidity) and pure water that will help plants grow.

That’s how a condenser will probably look like

“Plants need light for growth but they don’t like heat beyond a certain point,” said Charlie Paton, one of the Sahara Forest team and the inventor of the seawater greenhouse concept.

There have been quite a few great ideas to use the potential of Sahara Desert. Remember when they said it has the potential to power the whole Europe? You’d better believe it. The total cost of building 20 hectares of greenhouses along with a 10MW CSP (Concentrated Solar Power) scheme would cost around €80m (£65m) which is not much considering that these technologies have already proved their efficiency.

But what’s that CSP?

“Concentrated solar power mirror arrays covering just one per cent of the Earth’s deserts could supply a fifth of all current global energy consumption. And one million tonnes of sea water could be evaporated every day from just 20,000 hectares of greenhouses,” said Neil Crumpton, an energy specialist at Friends of the Earth.

I’m pretty impressed myself, but apparently that’s not the first place where researchers have started such a project, with Tenerife, Oman or the UAE already doing it.

Prepare yourself to buy food at the supermarket labeled Grown in the Sahara Desert. I’d love it!

Source (Image courtesy of antonioperezrio.es)

Pretty odd I must say, but a recent study revealed that if Australia is going to farm kangaroos instead of cattle and sheep (to remove 36 million sheep and 7 million cattle by 2020), that could lower the overall greenhouse gases by 3 percent each year. Do you think it’s that simple?

First of all, Australians won’t understand that killing kangaroos for food is good for the environment. It’s more like a matter of taste than a matter of global warming, and my bet is people are not yet prepared to switch to an all-kangaroo diet. Would you eat kangaroo meat just because they produce negligible amounts of methane?

The other problem, which is just as big is the kangaroo-image, over Austsalian peopl. Changing the way people think is not going to be done overnight and certainly not just with ad campaigns because the kangaroo is actually, the national icon.

The study which revealed all these said that “using kangaroos to produce low-emission meat is an option for the Australian rangelands … and could even have global application,” said the study. Do you agree?

Image courtesy of t3rmin4t0r

Because scientists think (know) more than half of New Zealand’s greenhouse gases are from massive amounts of methane produced from sheep, cattle and deer farts, those same scientists decided to turn off the gas valve genetically.

So they did. The Kiwis have managed to map the genome causing those animal belches and gas. Meaning, they have the cure for cow farts? Maybe.

“Our agricultural research organisation just last week was able to map the genome … that causes methane in ruminant animals and we believe we can vaccinate against flatulent emissions” said Phil Goff, New Zealand’s trade minister.

Though I’m not sure if the government numbers are right, New Zealand’s 45 million sheep and 10 million cattle may have farted and burped contributing more than 90-percent of the country’s methane emissions. This is huge, not to mention the environmental problems it may be causing.

We’ll have to see what the Kiwis will do to the animals to stop them from doing their needs. Cow pills, cow psychologists or a plug maybe ?

Original image at skinnyde