A groundbreaking ceremony is hosted last week in celebration of the start of construction of Japan's largest solar and wind power plant, located in Tahara City. The major project will be spread over 800 thousand square meters and is estimated to generate 67.5 thousand megawatt hours of electricity each year which would be enough to power 90 percent of the homes in Tahara City with green energy. It is also thought that the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions each year will be approximately 32 thousand tones. The solar and wind power plant is part of a collaboration of seven firms (Mitsui Chemicals, Mitsui & Co, C-Tech Corporation, Toagosei Co, Toshiba Corporation, Toray Industries, and Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co) who initiated the project last October, with permission granted in September 2012. Design and construction on the plant is US$ 225 million with the majority of the money being sourced through loans from the Development Bank of Japan. The participating companies will maintain a cooperative technological relationship with the Chubu Electric Power Co., and will acquire new technology and knowledge unique to the nation's largest solar energy generation facility.

After waves of controversy following the destructive tsunami and subsequent failure of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in March of 2011, Japan began ramping down its atomic energy industry and actively pursuing safer, alternative energy sources. As reported Reuters, Electronics firm Kyocera Corporation, heavy machinery maker IHI Corporation and Mizuho Corporate Bank announced about their agreement to launch Japan's biggest solar power project at a cost of US$ 307 million. Mizuho will finance the development, and IHI will lease the land on which Kyocera will provide the solar modules and design of the site. An artist's rendering of the farm shows 290 thousand solar panels arranged on 3.14 million square meters of reclaimed land off of the southern city of Kagoshima. Their 70-megawatt plant will generate about 79 thousand megawatt hours of electricity per year, enough for about 22 thousand households. A special-purpose company (SPC) will be set up to build and run the new plant, with construction starting in July. Further elements of the project, including a start date for commercial operation, will be decided after the government sets prices for a subsidy scheme for renewable energy sources that is also scheduled for launch on July.

A Japanese company, Air Danshin Systems Inc., has come up with perhaps the most inventive solution we've seen - they fit out existing houses to levitate in the event of an earthquake. In the wake of last year's Fukushima disaster the company is set to install the levitation system in 88 houses across Japan, reported The Inhabitat. As fantastical as a home levitation system may seem, Air Danshin claims that the technology is not only effective, but also 1/3 cheaper than many other earthquake-proofing systems out there - and it requires little maintenance. According to Spoon & Tamago, the technology calls for a fairly simple, if powerful, set of mechanisms to be installed around a property. When an earthquake hits, a sensor responds within one second by activating a compressor, which forces an incredible amount of air under the home, pushing the structure up and apart from its foundation. The air pressure can keep the home levitating up to 3cm from the shaking foundation below. An indoor valve controls the flow of air under the house, keeping the structure steady as it "floats". Once the earthquake is over the home gently falls back onto an earthquake-resistant reinforced concrete foundation. While the earthquake-resistant levitation system is presently being installed in houses, we hear the Japanese firm hopes to expand to install the system in larger, potentially more critical structures. To promote the technology, Air Danshin Systems have made some fairly convincing, and somewhat humorous, videos to demonstrate their technology in action.