Japanese construction companies are accelerating development of the net zero energy buildings or ZEBs that enable the annual energy consumption and generation balancing equal. Methods to save, generate and store energy are integrated to minimize the environmental impact.

Renewable energy generated in ZEBs can offset electricity consumption in annual basis.　 Japanese government stipulates a target to make all newly-built public buildings ZEBs by 2020 in the Fourth Basic Energy Plan established in April. To keep up with the administration’s policy, construction firms are striving to develop technologies and engineering methods.

Taisei Corp. completed a demonstration building of ZEB system in May at its research center in Yokohama. Through experiments at the center, the company intends to brush up their technologies to develop net zero energy buildings in urban areas where environmental load can be larger than in rural region.

Obayashi Corp. finished a renovation work on its research center in suburban Tokyo to test even advanced technologies of reducing CO2 emission. An office building in Yamanashi Prefecture design-built by Shimizu Corp. realized zero energy consumption by taking advantages of natural draft, PV generation and a biomass plant. (2014/11/04)