In Japan’s Gifu Prefecture, a demonstration test is underway of next-generation housing whose energy production is greater than its energy consumption.
To generate electrical power, the two-story house is installed with a photovoltaic power generation system and small wind power generator. It is also equipped with storage cells, energy-saving home electronics goods, and light-emitting diode (LED) lighting fixtures. Continuing until March 2012, the test will ascertain the actual effects of these features.
The testing is being conducted through cooperation between Gifu Prefectural Government and companies manufacturing and selling building materials and housing facilities. The house’s production of energy is expected to be greater than its energy consumption; trial calculations put its yearly consumption of primary energy at 58.6 gigajoules and its yearly production of energy at 101.8 gigajoules.
The house was installed with storage cells to prevent, as far as possible, a reverse flow of the power produced at the house into distribution lines. Future installation of many houses with photovoltaic systems and wind power generators is anticipated to have adverse effects such as a rise in voltage in the power system due to reverse flow. As a result, in the testing, it was decided to give precedence to storage of the power generated in the cells, and to sell it to power companies only when a surplus arises.
Gifu Prefecture has many mountainous and rural districts, and about 500 communities are at risk of isolation in the event of major earthquakes or other disasters. People who live in next-generation housing could have a supply of energy needed in daily life for a while, even if power, gas and other infrastructural lines are cut. As such, the testing is said to hold great significance for disaster prevention.
