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FOLENS Seminar November 2011:
Pre-lecture for the Field Trip “Sustainable Energy Strategies”—Energy Shit from Local Communities
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| Lecture “Energy Shift from Communities” by Mr. Noriaki Yamashita, Senior Researcher of Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies (ISEP) | Developing thoughts and opinions on energy policies of the world, Japan, and home countries |
The FOLENS Seminar in November was held on the 16th, Wednesday, at Koganei Campus. 10 students and 6 faculty participated.
The seminars from November to January focus on a theme of “Sustainable Energy Strategies: Challenges of Local Communities for Local Energy Generation and Consumption”, through a pre-lecture this month, a field trip in December, and a follow-up discussion in January. We, FOLENS students and faculty, decided this year’s main theme should be “energy” after discussing “what we want to learn this year” in the seminars in April and May. This was, obviously, because the Great East Japan Earthquake on the 11th of March and the crisis of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant that followed made us face the urgent necessity to review and redesign our energy systems and policies.
For the pre-lecture this month, we invited Mr. Noriaki Yamashita, Senior Researcher of Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies (ISEP). ISEP is an independent, non-profit research organization established in 2000 with a mission to realize sustainable energy policies. As people recognized the review of energy policies as one the most urgent issues after the Fukushima Daiichi Crisis, ISEP has led the discussions in Japan by delivering messages through media and meetings, based on their clear concept and accumulated experiences.
Mr. Yamashita, in his lecture titled “Energy Shift from Communities”, explained the framework of energy issues, the current energy situation in Japan and the world, and the vision of energy shift. What we learned from his informative lecture included: Japan is considerably behind in the international scene of renewable energy development; Community-based generation and consumption of renewable energy is one of the major keys for sustainability; There are already some successful cases in different communities in the world; The success requires not only strong leadership, but also participation of citizens and collaboration of multiple stakeholders, and policies based on the energy demands, but not the needs of the energy supply side or technological development. Overall, the lecture stimulated both students and faculty to develop their thoughts and ideas for realizing sustainable Asia and Africa from communities.
In the Q&A session, one student expressed his doubt about the feasibility of sustainable energy policies, and another questioned the situation of renewable energy utilization in his own country.
Knowledge and questions earned through this lecture should provide a basis for students to further explore the issues and develop their own thoughts and opinions. In December, we are visiting Iida and Ina Cities in Nagano Prefecture to study various challenges to promote the localization of energy generation and consumption with renewable energy sources. (SN)