On Tuesday April 3rd, 2018, Mr. Adnan Amin, Director-General of IRENA, paid visit to Fukushima Renewable Energy Institute, AIST (FREA). Welcome remarks by Tetsuhiko Kobayashi, Vice-President of AIST, and Dr. Masaru Nakaiwa, Director-General of FREA, preceded introductory overviews of AIST and FREA respectively.
Following these formalities, Dr. Hirohide Furutani and Dr. Kasumi Yasukawa, Director and Deputy Director of the Renewable Energy Research Center, presented research activities in FREA to Mr. Adnan Amin in the laboratory tour upon Energy Network, PV Power, Wind Power, Hydrogen Energy Carrier, Metal Hydride, Shallow Geothermal and Hydrogeology, Geothermal Energy in the Renewable Energy Demonstration Field and the Energy Control Building.
After that, in the Annex Building, Dr. Michio Kondo, Supervisory Innovation Coordinator, explained an integrated manufacturing line of thin-crystalline silicon solar cells. In the end, Mr. Adnan Amin provided the presentation upon IRENA, and Mr. Yasuhiro Hattori, President of Energy Agency Fukushima, also continued by providing the presentation on view of Fukushima Innovation Coast Initiative and Fukushima Plan for a New Energy Society.
Finally, all the participants discussed potential collaboration between FREA and IRENA.
* IRENA was launched in April 2011 with the aim of promoting sustainable use of all forms of renewable energy, including solar, wind, bioenergy, geothermal, hydropower, and ocean. The Secretariat Headquarters is in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, United Arab of Emirates.