Background and aims for establishing the division
To solve the global warming problem, the
biggest
issue for humankind in the 21st century, it is necessary to
substantially shift the energy sources from fossil energy such as coal,
oil and natural gas to renewable energy. Against this background, the
predecessor Solar Power Generation Technology Division had worked to
promote research of the University on solar power generation by
disseminating the research results in Japan and worldwide, tackling the
global warming problem. Meanwhile, today there is a wide variety of
research and development ongoing on “renewable energy” beyond solar,
such as wind power, biomass power generation and fuel cells. In
addition, at the time of the establishment of the predecessor Division,
the power supply was simply based on nuclear power to provide a stable
base power and thermal power generation to supplement the fluctuation
of demand. However, nowadays many types of renewable energy are
connected to the grid and the operation of the system infrastructures
for stable power supply has become highly difficult and critical. We
have therefore reorganized the Division, which previously focused only
on solar, to include the entire “renewable energy”, and defined the
purpose of the new Division as following:
- Development of
power generation materials that reduce the installation and operation
costs to the same level as power generation by fossil fuels.
- Development of highly efficient management technology for
electric power from various power generation methods.
- Development of new materials and new system technologies.
- Collaborations between our research divisions and external
research institutes.
Development aims of the Renewable Energy Science &
Technology Research Division
The following research subjects have
been taken up as
environmentally friendly technological approaches to renewable
energy systems:
•
Renewable energy materials group:
- Proposal
of ultra-high efficiency power generation device by tandem
configuration of thin film solar cells/thermoelectric generation
elements.
- Establishment of hydrogen production technology using solar
cell thin films and charging technology such as supercapacitors.
- Development
of ultra-low-cost solar and fuel cell materials and manufacturing
methods, and examination of their common basic technology.
•
Energy management group:
- Development
of technologies of failure diagnosis, remote diagnosis, power
generation prediction and AI utilization for energy loss control.
- Integration
of smoothing technology development for wind×solar power generation and
power storage technology such as batteries and flywheels.
- Solar matching for agriculture and application of renewable
energy technologies to smart houses.
