Solar Award 2013

The inventor of solar sharing Akira Nagashima received Solar Award 2013. He was one of three winners in the "Challenge" category.

The award ceremony was held on December 12, 2013, at the venue of Japan's major environmental products exhibition Eco-Products 2013.

The award committee recognized Nagashima's innovative idea of combining farming and solar power generation - a concept he named solar sharing.

Solar sharing is a new trend attracting attention of solar industry as well as farmers. Until recently, the options for placing solar panels were limited to either rooftops or the ground. Solar sharing opened up an entirely new possibility: installing solar panels over the farmland without imposing any limits on the agricultural production below.

Solar Award, established in 2012, selects outstanding ideas, projects and initiatives that contribute to the promotion of renewable energy in Japan. Widespread use of renewable energy can help achieve two goals:

1. increase Japan's energy self-sufficiency

2. breathe new life to Japan's declining countryside (through decentralized generation model)

Solar Award 2013 winners couldn't be more diverse. Here are some randomly picked laureates:

Dye sensitized solar cell ("Technology" category)

Solar cell that can accumulate electricity when exposed to light. The cell, which utilizes next generation technology, is a promising step toward solving the problem of solar energy storage.

The cell was developed by Prof. Hiroshi Segawa and his laboratory at the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo.

AeLL - an environmentally engaged "idol unit" ("Culture" category)

A group of four idol girls who, besides singing and dancing, also pick garbage on the Mt. Fuji, harvest potatoes and install solar panels in their new AeLL village in Minami-Alps City, Yamanashi prefecture.

... and many other interesting winners.