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SUMMARY In recent years, there has been a growing interest in ecofriendly technologies such as residential photovoltaic (PV) systems and electric vehicles (EVs). PV systems and EVs will contribute to reducing CO2 emissions in the residential sector and the transportation sector, respectively. In spite of that, high penetration of PV systems into the power grid can cause grid voltage and frequency stability problems. Also, the growth of the EV market will create an extra electricity load (for charging the EV fleet), leading to an increase in power utility fuel costs. In this research, we proposed the usage of the PV-EV system as a method of mitigating the impact the spread of residential PV systems and EV on the power grid. We built an PV-EV system simulation model and investigated the PV-EV system contribution to the balance of power supply and demand and to reducing the total cost of the household under different electricity pricing scenarios. We also evaluated the effect of uncertainty in the forecasting of load and PV output on the performance of the PV-EV system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY To assure power system stability when variable photovoltaic (PV) power generation is deployed on a large scale, accurate irradiance forecasting will be important in the near future. A substantial amount of PVs will be generating power at numerous locations in the power service area, and it will be necessary to predict the total PV output for supply/demand balancing control. Therefore, irradiance forecasting accuracy should be verified using the total irradiance at numbers of sites equivalent to areas with large-scale PV deployment. This paper reports an investigation of the accuracy of an approach to area total irradiance prediction based on regional numerical weather prediction data from the Japan Meteorological Agency. The forecast area total irradiance is compared to the assumed total area irradiance for numbers of sites equivalent to large-scale PV deployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Despite the lack of mandatory thermal requirements in the housing sector, an average Japanese household consumes around one-third of the energy for heating and cooling compared with a UK or German household. Based on a policy analysis and interviews, this paper identifies the concept and policies for sustainable building in Japan considering the characteristics of the building stock and household energy use behaviour. Energy and housing policies are described in terms of regulations, fiscal instruments and labels, and visualized in the context of a market transformation. The research shows that the Japanese policy has a clear preference for market-based instruments. Thermal regulations are limited to large developments only (over 300 m2) and exclude most of the residential sector. The market transformation is likely to work with appliances, and the Top Runner programme has proved to be an effective policy in making a current market leader a future standard, but the 'scrap and build' housing policy leaves little incentive for energy investments in the building sector; in 24 years the resale value of a Japanese home declines to almost zero and the payback time of most environmental measures exceeds the life-cycle of a building. As the implementation of environmental policies is voluntary, and the insulation levels low, the low heating demand per household seem to be due to different behavioural culture. The research concludes the necessity of introducing mandatory thermal regulations in housing in addition to market based instruments in order to gain further savings in the housing sector. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evaluation of trade-offs between technologies and policies for mitigation of environmental problems requires a systematic investigation of effects over the entire region under consideration. When attempting to model such large complex systems, issues such as usability, maintenance, and computing efficiency often become major modeling barriers. In this work a software prototype for integrating the services of computational models over the Internet, called DOME (distributed object-based modeling environment) is used to facilitate the construction of virtual Tokyo a simulation platform for evaluating holistically the trade-offs between various technologies for reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases. In making steps toward this ultimate goal, two models have been developed that use data defining spatial land-use distributions and the flows of goods expressed as an input-output table to provide information on the spatial and temporal characteristics of an urban region. Integrated, these models form a preliminary virtual Tokyo model when applied to Tokyo-specific databases. Given this platform, process models are applied to examine the effectiveness of using photovoltaic (PV) modules on the demand side to reduce conventional electric power generation and, thereby, also reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The results of introducing PV modules on the rooftops of buildings in Tokyo under various installation conditions are presented as a working example of the prototype. For full deployment on usable rooftop space, PV power generation could reduce carbon dioxide emissions from electric power generation by more than 12%. Future work will use the same methods as presented in this paper to examine cost, a critical determinant in the actual feasibility of PV module installation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]