A Dream of Small Power Development Spun by Citizens and Temples - Juko-in Temple, Edogawa-ku, Tokyo (April 1999)

A Dream of Small Power Development Spun by Citizens and Temples - Juko-in Temple, Edogawa-ku, Tokyo (April 1999)

In the late 1990s, renewable energy sources such as solar power generation were beginning to attract attention in Japan as a means of achieving the greenhouse gas reduction targets promised at the Kyoto Conference on Climate Change (COP3). However, the cost of introduction was still high, and diffusion at the household and community level was still in the trial-and-error stage. Around that time, a citizens' group active in Edogawa Ward, "Citizens' Net Edogawa," took the lead in attempting to build a power plant rooted in the local community. The local temple, Juko-in, was chosen as the site for the project.

The solar power generation facility to be installed in the temple's guest hall will have an output of about 5kw. The temple's chief priest said, "In addition to using the power for the guest hall, we will sell any surplus power to an electric power company. The citizens also expressed their hope for the future in their conversation, saying that they would like to plan the construction of a second or third power plant once the depreciation is completed. Electricity is an indispensable infrastructure for daily life, and the very idea of "citizens and temples working together to create it" was novel and warm at the time.

The project was also unique in terms of funding. About 6 million yen of the total construction cost was covered by grants and loans from the government and donations from citizens. In other words, it was a model case of cooperation in which local residents "contributed and supported each other" to realize an energy facility. At that time in Japan, it was common practice to have a monopoly structure in which the major electric power companies supplied electric power. In this context, the practice of "selling surplus electricity to power companies" symbolized the possibility of power source development by citizens.

In the background, there was also the maturation of the citizens' movement that advanced in the 1990s. Citizens were becoming aware of the need to address environmental issues on their own, rather than leaving them to the government or large corporations, and the introduction of natural energy was a symbolic theme. The fact that a temple, a traditional site in the urban area of Edogawa Ward, was used as a base of operations may also have been a reason for the interest of the people. The fusion of the local community, religious facilities, and civic activities was more than just a "power plant construction"; it anticipated the 21st century "way of the community and the environment.

These small attempts led to the emergence of "citizen power companies" and "renewable energy cooperatives" in the future. In short, the Edogawa case is historically significant as a small step toward the democratization of energy in Japan in the 1990s.