Kyoto City Launches Green Power Certification System

The Miyako Agenda21 Forum, an environmental partnership organization established by Kyoto City in collaboration with its citizens, businesses and surrounding local municipalities, has launched the Miyako Green Power Certification System.

The system aims to promote "local production for local consumption" of solar power as a way of helping curb global warming.

According to the organization, the first project certified under the system will be the Kyoto Hanatoro, illumination and flower sight-seeing events that are to be held annually at Arashiyama Area in December and Higashiyama Area in March.

The Forum sells Certificates of Green Power at 10 yen (about 9 US cents) per kilowatt hour to events held by businesses, associations and municipal governments in the Kyoto City area, and trades them for environmental values such as carbon dioxide reduction.

Hazy air hangs over Kyoto, Japan. (Photo credit unknown)

The Forum also authorizes the use of their logo to businesses.

Companies holding the certificates have to bear some additional costs but can publicize themselves as environmentally friendly and improve their corporate images.

Proceeds from sales of the certificates will go to the existing Sunshine Fund for promoting power plant installations that convert sunlight directly into electricity through arrays of solar photovoltaic, PV, cells.

The Kyoto Green Fund, a nonprofit organization that installs PV power plants at local nursery schools and kindergartens to introduce environmental education has been installing Sunshine PV power plants since March 2001.

The tenth PV power plant, at Myorin-en Nursery School in Kyoto, began operation in May 2007. The capacity of the plant is 10 kilowatts, and its annual production is projected to be 10,000 kilowatt-hours - about one-eighth of the annual electricity consumption of the school.

At Omiya Nursery School in Kyoto the Sunshine PV plant can supply the nursery school with two-thirds of its annual electricity consumption.

The Kyoto Green Fund philosophy is that environmental consciousness is best developed not through book knowledge, but in daily life during early childhood.

Changed behavior among the children has been reported at the nursery schools and kindergartens that have these PV systems. Some children now turn off the lights, saying, "It's a waste to leave the light on."

The Sunshine Fund has been supporting installation of the PV systems with monthly donations from the organization's members, donations from supporters of each PV power plant installation project, and donations from boxes placed in business offices or private homes and collected by fund-raisers.

In addition, the organization receives subsidies from the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization and support from private entities, such as Lions Clubs, to promote PV power plant installation.

{Japan for Sustainability contributed the information for this report.}

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