AIST Established New Institute in Fukushima Prefecture to Achieve Prompt and Large-Capacity Installation of Renewable Energy

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The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) announced on September 25, 2013, that it would establish the Fukushima Renewable Energy Institute on October 1 of the same year, and will open the institute in April 2014 after building facilities in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture. The objective of the institute is a technology development for the large-capacity installation of renewable energy.

This institute will aim to be a cooperative hub for open innovation, and operate under the following missions: the "promotion of research and development into renewable energy, which is open to the world" and to make the "contribution to industrial clusters and reconstruction (from the Great East Japan Earthquake)."

The institute will be established as a novel research base to develop innovative technologies in collaboration with domestic and international partners who will congregate there, focusing on the following six themes:

1) Research and Verification of Advanced Integration of Renewable Energy Sources
2) Production and Utilization Technology of Hydrogen Carriers
3) Advanced Technology for Wind Power Generation
4) High-Performance Modules with Thin-Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells
5) Technologies for the Effective and Sustainable Use of Geothermal Power Generation
6) Potential Assessment of Ground-Source Heat Pump System and System Optimization Technology