Japanese Companies Strive for Carbon Reduction: Buildings' Exterior Walls Can Install Flexible Solar Panels
Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Holding Co. has announced that a next-generation bendable solar cell, "Calcite-Titanite Solar Cell" (PSC), will be used in a metropolitan building in Tokyo, and the installation is expected to be completed in 2028.
The 43-storey building will be fitted with Calcium Titanite solar cells on all exterior walls, which will enable the building to match the power generation capacity of large-scale solar power plants. This may be the world's first large-scale installation of CaTiO solar cells in a high-rise building, and it is hoped that this will be a case of CaTiO solar cells coming into practical use.
In the urban renewal of the Uchisaiwaicho area next to Hibiya Park in Tokyo, thin-film solar cells will be installed in all the available space between the floors and ceilings of each floor on the facades of high-rise buildings constructed after the demolition of the headquarters building of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings.
Installation of solar panels used to be quite challenging due to space and wind pressure in tall buildings. To achieve carbon reduction targets, companies usually contract with solar power plants in the suburbs, for example. The success of this program will enable buildings in cities to become self-sufficient in power generation and electricity consumption, and will promote large-scale carbon reduction in offices. For Japan, with its mountainous terrain, the introduction of innovative technology for calcite solar cells will also play an important role in solar power generation.
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