Benchmark Study on Green Buildings - Royal Architectural Institute ...

as many applications as possible. In 1998, the subsidy was expanded to cover the
installation of PV systems for local government buildings and housing complexes. This
caused more demand, and the subsidy fund had to grow accordingly, from 11.1 billion
yen in 1997 (about $105 million Canadian), to 23.5 billion yen in 2001 (about $222
million Canadian). The value of the subsidy depends on the maximum capacity of the
solar battery module making up the system. It was approximately 100,000 yen/kW of
solar generating capacity in 2002, although this is likely to have decreased since then due
to the continually falling prices of PV systems.
The NEF started the “Subsidy Program for Residential Solar Thermal Advanced
Utilization Systems” in 2002 with the fund from METI. The program budget for 2002
was approximately 5.8 billion yen. A Solar Thermal Advanced Utilization System is
constructed from a heat accumulator, a heat collector and a circulating pump which
circulates antifreeze through the unit. The heat collector should be installed adequately on
the roof to obtain the subsidy, and the system works for heating, cooling and water
heating. The purpose of this program is to reduce the cost of the system so that it
becomes more affordable and widespread. The gross area of this system (total area per
heat collector x number of units) must be less than 25m 2 , and the subsidy grants a
maximum of 150’000 yen per system.
The 2001 “Interest Subsidization Program” gives companies installing renewable energy
generation systems lower interest rates when borrowing from financial institutions to
cover these costs. The energy systems covered by this program include geothermal heat,
waste heat, thermal energy conservation, power generation using waste heat, wind power
generation, waste power generation, solar power generation, and hydro power generation
systems. The NEF subsidizes the financial institutions, which then provide the companies
with reduced interest rates.
Building Centre of Japan (BCJ):
The Building Centre of Japan (BCJ) is self-described as an incubator of new building
technologies and helps their growth and acceptance into society. The BCJ performs a
wide range of activities including evaluation, research and development of new building
technologies, and international cooperation and dissemination of information. The BCJ
contributes to the advancement of building technologies and the building industry, while
improving the quality of life for Japanese people and people around the world. The BCJ
has been involved in research involving many new building technologies and ideas,
including hyper-buildings (a structure capable of housing 100,000 people that could stand
for 1,000 years), arcologies (a term describing the merging of architecture and ecology,
usually used in context with hyper-building or to describe a sustainable hyper-building),
and sustainable building practices. Recently the focus of the BCJ has been on green
building, assessment of the ISO 9000 and 14001 standards, globally disseminating
building information, the review of various Japanese building codes and laws, research
into prefabricated houses, green roofs, research into sick building syndrome, and
innovative building technologies (recycling building materials, sound-insulated floors and
walls, building materials with low VOC content, heat-insulating materials that are not
easily ignited, etc). When conducting evaluations of various building materials, each
88