A remote Tokyo island will exploit for six months only the energy of the sun to power several hundred families in a government-backed process to support the use of renewable energy.
The demonstration process on the Hahajima Island of the Ogasawara chain will begin in 2022 and will be managed by the Tokyo Municipality, TEPCO Power Grid Inc., a subsidiary of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) and Ogasawara Village.
Today, about 280 families on the island they receive electricity from diesel power generation. Switching to solar energy production will help reduce carbon and diesel emissions and also produce and consume energy locally.
The three sides signed an agreement in December 2018 in which it was decided that the Tokyo municipality and Ogasawara village will provide free of charge from 20.000 to 30.000 sq m of free space to TEPCO Power Grid to install solar panels and rechargeable batteries needed to start the project.
The TEPCO branch has already begun a three-year review of the natural environment of the Ogasawara Island Chain, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The solar panels will then be installed over the course of about a year.
From the end of the year 2022, the government will evaluate the sustainability of the model for six months, i.e. whether the island can be supplied exclusively through solar energy. If successful, other islands will also be considered.