Achieving lower levels of carbon emissions is not a matter of pitting one energy source against another. Rather, doing so requires that we leverage the strengths of each respective source of energy and thereby establish integrated energy systems. To that end, we can draw on our knowledge to achieve a low-carbon society by establishing the best-mixed energy-supply clusters including renewable energy sources and by merging distributed energy systems with existing infrastructures, we can supply communities with electricity and heat, as well as hydrogen and other substances. Such energy-supply clusters will rely on Energy Management Systems (EMS) that combine the energy needs of families with those of transportation, thereby enabling these new sources of energy to become the energy infrastructure that enables us to make the low-carbon society a reality.

Tokyo Tech has played a central role in creating a research platform--AES Center--to grapple with government-academia initiatives aiming to develop underlying technologies needed to build integrated infrastructure frameworks that form the basis for next-generation energy supplies. AES Center works boldly in regard to establishing best-mix power supply systems, energy conservation, and new energy technologies, and aims to establish Advanced Energy Systems for Sustainability (AES) that help avert global warming and help achieve a stable energy supplies. AES Center implements research initiatives that guide us toward setting up a basis from which next-generation energy sources can be implemented.

In an effort to truly resolve issues that it addresses, AES Center integrates different fields of study -- including electrical and electronic engineering, energy technology, mechanical engineering, materials engineering, chemical engineering, and physics, as well as social sciences and other such fields. Moreover, AES Center regards sound industry-academia collaboration, involving entities such as those in business, government, and communities as an essential part of its initiatives. AES Center maintains a research platform designed to aggressively bring those in varying fields of study together, and to drive academia-industry collaboration. At the same time it targets a challenging research agenda that meets societal and national demands, and thereby aims to act as a center of research that pursues innovative in regard to advanced energy system research and development and in regard to spurring a shift toward lower carbon emissions.

Institute Professor Takao Kashiwagi, AES Project Leader