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Japan Solar Power Network to add 29 MW of rooftop solar

Posted on July 4, 2014 //

by IAN CLOVER, PV Magazine, June 26 2014

The 29 MW project will connect to Japan's grid and also provide emergency power in the wake of natural disasters Photo: NexPower Source: www.pv-magazine.com

The 29 MW project will connect to Japan’s grid and also provide emergency power in the wake of natural disasters
Photo: NexPower
Source: www.pv-magazine.com

The Tokyo-based distributed power generation company has partnered with Beisia Corporation to fit 33 buildings with rooftop PV systems totaling 29 MW.

The Solar Power Network (SPN) Japan has today announced a partnership with Beisia Corporation to install 29 MW of rooftop solar PV across 33 buildings in greater Tokyo and the Chuba region of Japan.

The Tokyo-based distributed power generation company will design, build and operate the facilities, which will be installed across 33 buildings owned by Beisia.

Combined, the systems will add 29 MW of PV capacity to the Japanese electricity grid and will be eligible for contracts under the country’s feed-in tariff (FIT). Beisia has pressed for the systems in order to meet obligations it is signed up to under a disaster relief obligation created in the wake of the 2004 Chuetu Earthquake and the 2011 Tsunami. Power provided by these solar rooftop arrays will form part of the emergency supply in the wake of another natural disaster.

Once operational, the rooftop installations will provide enough solar energy to power 9,250 local households each year, mitigating the effects of 680,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions in the process. SPN CEO and president, Peter Goodman, remarked that solar power is a reliable source of emergency energy in the wake of a natural disaster, and applauded Beisia’s efforts to ensure relief for communities during such disruptions.

“One of SPN’s primary goals is to provide clean energy to local communities,” he said. “SPN is proud to support Beisia in its initiative to move forward with its disaster relief scheme using renewable power. It is a great honor and pleasure for SPN to be part of such a visionary program that includes 33 solar power facilities.”

The first of the 33 systems will be operational before the end of 2014, according to SPN, with a further 17 coming online before summer 2015.

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Urban farms in Taipei and Tokyo improve office life

Posted on May 13, 2014 //

by WEN-JAY YING, Untapped Cities, February 25, 2014

Winkler Partners Law Firm office houses one of the first rooftop gardens in Taipei Photo: Wen-Jay Ying Source: www.untappedcities.com

Winkler Partners Law Firm office houses one of the first rooftop gardens in Taipei
Photo: Wen-Jay Ying
Source: www.untappedcities.com

Walking out onto the roof of Winkler Partners Law Firm, arugula and strawberry plants frame the silhouette of buildings and mountain tops that make up the Taipei skyline. “Here’s my business card. That side is how I make money, the other is how I spend money,” says Robin Winkler, an American expat and our host for the day. The card states Winkler Partners Law Firm and the flip side reads Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association. His hobby, Wild at Heart, is the first environmental legal defense fund in Taipei, but his day job isn’t too bad either. The Winkler Partners office houses one of the first rooftop gardens in Taipei.

Robin shows us three rainwater tanks that are used to water plants during droughts. In Taiwan, precipitation varies dramatically and rainwater tanks are essential to help with both flooding and dry spells. The rooftop also has a compost toilet, which surprisingly has no smell. The matter is stored in tubs that will eventually be used to feed their plants.

There are passionfruit trees, strawberries plants, leafy greens, and about forty other edible plants and 300 other species that find a home on the law firm’s rooftop garden. Employees are encouraged to help out with the garden. Robin and his colleagues wanted a space to share information about plants and to make the office a place where you could take a break from… well, the office. It’s their alternative to the common workplace culture and a symbol for jobs with dignity. Ideas for a greener Taiwan extend further than their urban oasis, with intentions to share horticulture with the community through composting workshops and youth education programs.

[Read more...]

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Govt secretaries inspect rooftop farming – KATHMANDU

Posted on May 8, 2014 //

by Republica, May 3, 2014

To promote the rooftop and terrace farming in Kathmandu city, some government secretaries and high-level officials from concerned government departments have inspected the rooftop farming at some places of the capital.

The inspection team led by secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office Krishna Hari Banskota reached the residences of Litterateur Pawan Alok and Rekha Kandel, a homemaker, where the officials were fascinated to see a wide variety of vegetables growing in clay vessels and plastic drums. They had planted chilies, tomatoes, flowers, guava, mango, pomegranate, oranges, green leaves and fruits and vegetables of many more varieties.

“The rooftop farming we saw left us quite inspired as we witnessed a mausami plant of nearly four inches bearing 12 fruits and a three inches lemon plant producing as many as 100 lemons at times,” said Secretary Banskota.

Executive Chief of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) shared with the monitoring team that additional 500 people were going to receive training on rooftop farming this year alone. The authority has already trained 650 families in the past.

The executive director of the Solid Waste Management Committee Sumitra Amatya added that the elderly people who stay at home all the day have a good time by engaging in rooftop farming that does not require much labor.

The committee every year felicitates the best performers in this category of farming and managing the organic waste on the occasion of World Environment Day.

Secretary Banskota stressed on promoting rooftop farming by introducing separate and clear policies.

The monitoring team later went to the Compost Manure Production Center operated by NEPSEMAC at Chovar and inspected the technique and methodology adopted for producing the organic manure. Secretary of the Ministry of Urban Development Kishor Thapa expressed commitment to promote the organic waste production that helps converting waste into money.

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Read also:
KMC to promote rooftop farming
Metropolis to help create 500 rooftop gardens
Elderly couple turn rooftop into their vegetable garden

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A Farm Grows in Brooklyn – on the Roof

Posted on April 29, 2014 //

by MARK J. MILLER, for National Geographic, April 29, 2014

This story is part of National Geographic‘s special eight-month “Future of Food” series.

U.S. cities lead a rooftop-farming movement that’s spreading around the globe.

For most urban dwellers, visiting a working farm requires a journey into the countryside. But in a growing number of world capitals, a farm is just a short elevator ride away—on the roof.

In Singapore, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Montreal as well as several U.S. cities, farms have been built atop multistory buildings.

“Five years ago, there were virtually no rooftop farms,” Steven Peck, founder and president of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, told National Geographic. “Now they are starting to appear across the globe.”

Peck says that as fossil fuels become more expensive and the number of urban dwellers continues to rise, urban farming will help feed the population without increasing the cost and pollution of food transport.

Rooftop farming was born out of the green-roof movement, in which building owners partially or completely cover roofs with vegetation atop special waterproof membranes. Green roofs use plants and flowers to provide insulation, create a habitat for local wildlife, help control runoff, put more oxygen into the atmosphere—and provide a welcome, verdant break from urban drabness.

Rooftop farms take the green-roof concept a step further, with plots that provide fruits and vegetables for local residents and the chance for urban volunteers to become part-time farmers.

[Read more...]

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Hong Kong’s fish farms in the sky

Posted on April 23, 2014 //

by PETER SHADBOLT, BBC News, April 2, 2014

Michael Leung’s honey commands a premium price Photo: HK Honey Source: www.bbc.com/news

Michael Leung’s honey commands a premium price
Photo: HK Honey
Source: www.bbc.com/news

Under eerie blue lights designed to simulate the ocean depths, hundreds of fish swim serenely through the bubbling waters of their circular tanks, 15 floors up in the sky.

There are 11 plastic tanks in total, holding a combined 80,000 litres of salt water.

They are full of grouper, a white-fleshed fish, which are all destined to end up on the plates of restaurant-goers across Hong Kong.

This is the scene at Oceanethix, one of the numerous so-called “vertical fish farms” in the special administrative region, which have become a key fixture of its supply chain.

For while most fish farms around the world are at sea, or at least, land level, in Hong Kong it is more often a necessity to put them many floors up in tall buildings.

This is because as one of the most densely populated places in the world, there is simply very little spare space. So fish farms have to fit in where they can.

For the small firms that dominate the industry, it is worth the effort, as Hong Kong has an insatiable appetite for fish and seafood. It consumes more than 70kg (11 stone) per capita every year, 10 times more than in the US.

[Read more...]

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You won’t believe what passengers are doing on the roof of this Tokyo train station, but it will make you green with envy

Posted on April 23, 2014 //

by Derek Markham, TreeHugger, March 26, 2014

The plot thickens at Tokyo train stations, as passengers grow on the go with these rooftop garden allotments Photo: Soradofarm Source: www.treehugger.com

The plot thickens at Tokyo train stations, as passengers grow on the go with these rooftop garden allotments
Photo: Soradofarm
Source: www.treehugger.com

The plot thickens at Tokyo train stations, as passengers grow on the go with these rooftop garden allotments.

It’s one thing to start and tend a garden if you have plenty of space at home, as well as the time to care for it, and another thing entirely to do so if you spend a good chunk of your day commuting, and lack a place at home for even a tiny garden.

But an ingenious solution is cropping up in Japan, where the East Japan Railway Company has collaborated with a station entertainment company to create a series of rooftop gardens on train stations, where commuters can create their own tiny gardens and tend to them while they wait for their train to arrive.

The Soradofarm project, which currently has five locations, including at Tokyo’s JR Ebisu station, allows people to rent their own garden allotment measuring just 3 square meters (tools, water, and garden equipment, and even seeds are included) to try their hand at growing food, flowers, and more.

The price isn’t cheap, as some of the plots cost 100,440 JPY per year (~$960 USD), but considering that it may be the best option for many of the people who are interested in it, due to space issues, these urban rooftop garden allotments could be a viable way to get some green in their busy lives.

Aside from the possibility of growing even a tiny amount of fresh food for themselves, these innovative urban gardens may be an effective solution for decreasing stress and increasing the amount of time spent out in the fresh air and sunshine, especially in areas where outdoor space is at a premium, and having a place to call your own is hard to come by.

Although there are just five urban rooftop gardens installed at the train stations so far, according to Springwise, East Japan Railways plans to open up more of these garden allotments “on top of or near to each one of its stations” in the future.

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