Green Tech

Japan's Ministry of the Environment announced a program on Tuesday to test electric vehicles and a network of charging stations, some supplied by auto start-up Better Place.

The electric vehicle feasibility study will give local governments access to 50 electric cars for several months. Cars included are Mitsubishi Motors' iMiev, the Plug-in Stella from Subaru, the Honda Clarity fuel-cell vehicle, and the Erezo electric motorbike under development.

Better Place will install battery exchange stations in the trial. The deal in Japan is similar to those made recently with several countries, the city of San Francisco, and the state of Hawaii that have signed on with Better Place, which has developed a system to accelerate electric car use through battery leasing and automated swapping.

The trial is part of Japan's national goal of having electric cars make up half of all new vehicle sales by 2020. The program will also include a facility for rapid car battery charging.

Automakers say they need an infrastructure, such as charging stations in public places, for their electric car programs to take hold.

The first electric versions of familiar sedans from the likes of Nissan and others will start becoming available in 2010, but they will largely be used for testing. Broader availability of these cars will be in 2011 and 2012.

Corrected July 9 at 6 p.m. PDT: This blog initially stated that CIS reached an efficiency of 20 percent. The studies showing that efficiency used a higher light concentration than the studies of CIGS efficiency. When comparing the two, CIS has a lower efficiency of around 15 percent.

Royal Dutch Shell subsidiary Showa Shell Sekiyu, Japan's fifth-largest oil refiner, plans to invest 100 billion yen, or about $938 million, in a solar-panel megaplant, according to AFP.

The planned factory will produce panels with the cumulative annual capacity to produce 1 gigawatt of power, equivalent to that of a small nuclear-power reactor.

The news breaks a month after Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda called for a tenfold increase in the country's use of solar power by 2020. The government is considering subsidies to boost the industry.

Showa came into the solar-power business last year, with its first 20-megawatt-capacity photovoltaic plant in the southern city of Miyazaki. In August, it announced plans to build a second factory, with a capacity to produce 60 megawatts.

The company produces its thin-film photovoltaics with copper, indium, and selenium (CIS). This differs from the combination of copper, indium, gallium, and selenium (CIGS) that companies such as Miasole, HelioVolt, Nanosolar, and Global Solar are using.

In 2005, CIS had reached a maximum efficiency in converting solar light to electricity of 15 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL (PDF). That is less than the 19.9 percentage mark that CIGS cells achieved in March by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The reason Gallium is added into the CIS cell (to make it a CIGS cell) is to raise the band gap of the material. This enables the material to more efficiently absorb the solar spectrum and in turn increase the efficiency of the cell. But it also makes CIGS more complicated--and potentially more expensive--to manufacture than CIS thin film.

The location of the new plant remains undisclosed, but rumors say the company is considering areas of Japan, Europe, and the Middle East. Equally unknown is the financial source for the project.

(Credit: Inventor Spot)

Those who are familiar with Japan's Strapya will undoubtedly remember any number of its bizarre products, which usually come in the form of some misguided cell phone accessory. But there's actually a more serious side to the company, believe it or not, one that involves environmentally friendly products.

Earlier this year, for instance, Strapya came out with a solar charger small enough to fit on a keychain. And now it has released the "Zero," a mobile phone case made from recycled tires.

Inventor Spot speculates that these cases may reflect a new green awareness among younger generations in Japan. That would make sense, because previous generations might have a very different association with the brand name.

Vacationing in Japan this week I accidentally rode on the world's first diesel-electric hybrid train in commercial service: The Kiha E200 running on the East Japan Railway's Koumi Line. Aside from being a new train, introduced in 2007, it seemed like any other, but the photographers camped out for a shot along the mountainous route told otherwise.

JR East's Kiha E200 hybrid train

(Credit: Sinobyte)

The train is a working prototype in use since July 2007 with the aim of gathering data for eventual mass production. Like a hybrid car, the diesel-powered engine is used during acceleration and the electric motor kicks in to maintain speed while collecting energy during braking.

As you can see in this YouTube video, the ride is smooth and quiet, and each train also includes a data screen near the bathrooms (that I didn't notice, since I'd gone at the station). The Koumi Line, according to the video caption (and Wikipedia Japan), is Japan's highest altitude train line at 1,375 meters, and it has spectacular views of the southern mountain range on the main Japanese island of Honshu, including Mt. Fuji. Developing highly efficient train transport will turn green mass transit even greener. Let's hope the test runs work out and other train companies get on board. Now, for the globally mobile, can I get a hybrid jumbo jet over here?