Welcome back to JJNN.
Today's article is from the Yomiuri Online.
As I have said a few times before, Japan is in the middle of a little power crisis. Everyone is looking for ways to save electricity and money in the long run. If a person, or a family, or a community or even a company can save electricity now that means fewer brownouts during the summer and more happy people in the long run.
One of the biggest companies in Japan, and its largest broadcaster, NHK, wants to do its part for Japan's power crisis. NHK's plan will take 2 years to complete but the general idea is that they want to service about 200 million households with their broadcasts without using one kilowatt from the power grid.
The mystery of how they will accomplish this task is solved when one looks at where NHK's main broadcast station is located. The facility is actually located about a half and hour south of where I am by train and it is one of the sunniest locations in Japan. That's right, they are going to broadcast using the power of the sun. They plan on producing 200o kilowatts of electricity by using 15 thousand square meters (that's almost 18 thousand square yards) of solar cells which will come to about 10 thousand panels. The total cost should be somewhere near 1.8 billion yen. A lot of money, but a worthy cause.
It is now time for the word of the day. Today's word is 発電(はつでん). It is pronounced hatsuden and it means producing electricity. I always wanted a house with solar panels. They always seemed so futuristic to me.
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