City gas and the environment

2. Measures at customers

For the First Commitment Period, in the residential sector we have commercialized residential high-efficiency condensing water heaters that recover latent heat from combustion and 1-kW gas cogeneration systems for residential use, and are promoting widespread use of such equipment.

Fig. 2 Promotion of high-efficiency water heaters

In the commercial and industrial sectors, we are promoting the widespread use of natural gas cogeneration systems with generating capacity of several tens to several thousands of kW and are promoting district-based use of heat and electricity. Meanwhile, in the transport sector, we are promoting the wider use of natural gas vehicles. In recent years, the generation efficiency of cogeneration systems has been improved further and more compact models have been developed. These advances have enabled many new applications for which it had been difficult to use co-generation systems. Such uses include factories with high ratios of electricity in total energy consumption, and offices and homes with small electricity demand.

Fig. 3 Wider use of cogeneration systems through a broader lineup

Fuel cell systems for households, as next-generation appliances for in-house power generation, started to be marketed full scale in fiscal 2009, and these will further reduce CO₂ emissions.
It has been demonstrated that these fuel cell systems can achieve power generation efficiencies as high as 37%, along with an energy saving of 33% and CO₂ reduction of 45%.

Fig. 4 Residential fuel cell

GAS Vision 2030

The Japan Gas Association formulated “GAS VISION 2030” and started the following five actions to boost the contribution of natural gas to creating a low-carbon society and sustainable communities. We aim to achieve the potential of reducing greenhouse gas emissions annually by 48 million t-CO₂ through GAS VISION 2030 and these efforts.

(1) Expanding the use of natural gas and introducing advanced means of utilization

Promoting the use of natural gas as an alternative to other fuels; improving the efficiency of CHP and fuel cells; and promoting the use of high-efficiency gas water heaters (Eco-Jozu and Eco-Will) to make them standard models of water heaters in Japan.

(2) Optimum deployment for efficient energy utilization

As the demand structure becomes more diversified, we will promote optimum deployment of appliances and systems for higher efficiency.

(3) Evolving distributed energy systems

• Combining renewable energy and city gas (for stabilized output)
• Supplying heat and electricity mutually and complementarily; promoting district-based energy use
• Establishment of the CHP/DHC Promotion Consortium for international partnership (involvement with IEA’s CHP/DHC Collaborative, etc.) and CHP/DHC promotion in Japan

(4) Promoting the use of renewable energy sources

Power generation by renewable energy, which is characterized by unstable generation output, will be expanded by combining it with cogeneration whose generation output can be easily adjusted.

Fig. 5 Local production and consumption systems utilizing renewable energy sources

(5) Efforts to create a hydrogen society by 2050

Create a society with composite-type local hydrogen networks that combine hydrogen networks and natural gas networks.