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Press ReleasesOctober 14, 2008
Press Releases
Ceremony held to celebrate the installation of the first “ENE-FARM” household fuel cell, in “Fukuoka Hydrogen Town”
- Start-up of the largest model city in the world using hydrogen energy -
October 14, 2008
PRESS RELEASE
Together with Fukuoka Prefectural Government and SAIBU GAS ENERGY (President: Kyosuke Endo), Nippon Oil Corporation (President: Shinji Nishio) has been developing the world’s largest “Hydrogen Town” in the community gas housing estate*1 in Maebaru City, Fukuoka Prefecture, where household fuel cells known as “ENE-FARMs” are built extensively on a scale of 150 units. We hereby announce that a ceremony was held to celebrate the completion of the installation of the first “ENE-FARM.”
This project has been carried out as a first step of the technology demonstration under the real community of the “Fukuoka Hydrogen Strategy (Hy-Life project)” which, since the beginning of fiscal year 2008, Fukuoka Prefecture and Fukuoka Strategy Conference for Hydrogen Energy*2 have been working on, in a bid to realize an environmentally-friendly hydrogen energy society at the forefront of the world. Such as extensive installation on this scale is the first of its kind in the world.
Following the greetings by the hosts such as Wataru Aso, governor of Fukuoka Prefecture, Mineo Matsumoto, Mayor of Maebaru City and Ikutoshi Matsumura, vice president and operating officer of Nippon Oil Corporation, Makoto Kawahara, director of Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Promotion Office at the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, gave a congratulatory speech. After a ribbon cutting and the curtain unveiling ceremony, “ENE-FARM ”, which had started operating, was unveiled.
After the ceremony, an event for the public called the “ECO challenge for everyone in Minami!!” took place. Residents learnt about energy, the global environment and ecology practices which residents can implement themselves in a fun way through a scientific magic show and a quiz competition.
We plan to lead the world by starting to sell “ENE-FARMs” an environmentally-friendly energy system, targeting the Japanese market on a full scale in fiscal year 2009. Through initiatives to promote the diffusion of “ENE-FARMs” we intend to pursue our group philosophy of “creating the energy future and promoting prosperity and harmony with nature.”
- *1 community gas housing estate
Supplying households with LPG via pipelines by installing large LPG cylinders in residential areas with more than 70 households. Community gas utility business is a public service which requires a license in accordance with the Gas Business Act and on which an obligation to supply gas has been imposed. - *2 Fukuoka Prefecture and Fukuoka Strategy Conference for Hydrogen Energy
The largest industry, academia and local government collaborative organization in Japan which tackles coherent research and development from the production, transportation and storage to the use of hydrogen, technology demonstration, and human resource development as the only organization in Japan. Set up in August 2004, membership of 482 companies and organizations (as of October 1, 2008)