JJNN 39 July 3rd, 2008

Welcome again to JJNN for Thursday July 3rd, 2008. Today I will talk about another train related news story.

The original news story can be found here. It seems that everyone is trying to do their part for the environment these days. This is not a bad thing, if it done in the right way. For an example of the wrong way to do something good for the environment check out JJNN for June 22nd.

This time the Japan's train network is getting into the earth saving action. They decided to go in a slightly different direction than turning off lights and lighting candles. Tokyo station (one of, if not the, biggest train stations in Japan) announced that it will be putting up solar panels starting next year. The roofs of platform 9 and 10 will be set with 3000 square meters of solar panels which should be produce 390 KW of energy - enough energy to power about 90 homes.

That is wonderful and it should decrease the CO2 output of Tokyo station by about .3%. That does not sound that much, but it is actually 90 tons of CO2 that is being kept from going into that atmosphere. Any little thing helps in the end. If the Tokyo station solar panels prove a good success other stations may try the same thing and save yet more money (in the very long run) and CO2 from going into the air. Solar panels are not the most efficient way of producing energy, but they work better than a station putting up a big windmill.

Any way, it is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 東京駅(とうきょうえき). It is pronounced Tokyo-eki and means Tokyo Station. I still remember my first time going though Tokyo Station. I never thought I would find my way to where I needed to go or find my way back. I guess you get used to it if you go there a lot, but even now I still think it can be a maze.

That's it for today. See you next time at JJNN.