TOKYOLike Olympic villages of past years, Tokyos version in 2020 will feature new buildings to house athletes and buses to ferry people to competition venues. But if Tokyos governor has his way, it will all be powered by a new energy source: hydrogen.
Tokyo Gov. Yoichi Masuzoe
The first Tokyo Olympics, 50 years ago, left a bullet-train system as a legacy. I want to leave a hydrogen society as a legacy for the next Tokyo Olympics, Gov. Yoichi Masuzoe said in an interview.
Tokyo has said it plans to spend 40 billion yen ($330 million) through 2020 to encourage the development of technologies based on hydrogen, a gas capable of producing energy without exhaust other than water when mixed with oxygen in a fuel cell.
By the time the Summer Games kick off, Japanese officials hope to have thousands of hydrogen-powered cars on the road, at least 100 fuel-cell buses in operation, mostly in and around the Olympic Village, and a network of fueling stations supplying the gas. They also are considering building a pipeline to transport hydrogen across the Olympic Village, where industrial-size fuel cells would power buildings like the media center and the athletes dormitories.
It is all part of a broader push by Japan to reduce its reliance on imported fossil fuels, as well as nuclear power, in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries is working on a tanker to carry hydrogen from Australia, where it may be produced from coal. Photo: Kawasaki Heavy
Gov. Masuzoe and officials in Prime Minister Shinzo Abes administration acknowledge the challenges but say they can be addressed. Shipbuilder Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. and plant builder Chiyoda Corp. already are working with Electric Power Development Co. of Japan to produce hydrogen from low-grade coal in Australia. The first batch of Australian hydrogen is expected to arrive in Tokyo in time for the Olympics, the companies say. Japan also is approaching countries like Saudi Arabia and Malaysia for hydrogen produced from their refineries, consortium members say, and weighing the possibility of harnessing hydroelectric power in remote locations, perhaps in Canada or Russia, to produce hydrogen that could be shipped to Japan...snip
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