January 16-17, 2024
The partnership between Japan and the United States is longstanding and significant. It allows the best of both country’s higher education institutions to develop strategies and solutions to promote interdisciplinary problem-solving for global grand challenges. The University of Tennessee leads the collaboration between Japan and the USA in an academic, interdisciplinary platform called EXCET (U.S-Japan Exchange Program for Green Growth Collaboration through Clean Energy Technologies). The purpose of EXCET is to encourage communication and collaboration with researchers on issues of renewable energy, green energy, and environmental and energy justice. As a first step in this groundbreaking partnership, a delegation from the University of Tennessee led by Drs. Mingzhou Jin and Chien-fei Chen at the Institute for a Secure & Sustainable Environment (ISSE), went to Tokyo and co-hosted EXCET’s inaugural workshop with Waseda University.
Supported by the US Department of State and the US Embassy in Tokyo, EXCET is a high-level collaboration with the University of Tennessee (UT), Waseda University, and Osaka University. The key Japanese partners are Professors Yasuhiro Hayashi and Hideo Ishii at Waseda University and Professors Shinya Yoshizawa and Yohei Yamaguchi at Osaka University. Professor Hayashi is the Director of Waseda Center for a Carbon Neutral Society and a national leader for the clean energy transition and carbon neutrality.
Workshop activities considered both countries’ barriers, strategies, points of view, and strengths from different backgrounds. The goal is for long-term collaboration to serve as a model to support collaboration among researchers, industrial leaders, investors, community leaders, and policy makers in both countries.
The main segment of the workshop kicked off after a welcome by Professors Hayashi and Ishii and opening remarks by Professor Jin. Keynote speakers were Professor Shin-ichi Tanabe, Waseda University (Toward Net Zero Energy and Emission Buildings) and Professor Tony Reames, Former Deputy Director for Energy Justice, US Department of Energy, and Tishman Professor of Environmental Justice at the University of Michigan.
Over the two-day workshop, six full panels were presented with discussions sessions wrapping up each day. The panels were:
- Green Technology and Power Systems
- Decarbonization, NetZero Strategies, and Policy
- Energy Demand & Building Energy Efficiency
- Energy Justice & Social-Technological Integration
- Decarbonization Technology, Manufacture, and Agriculture
- Electric Vehicles & Charging Infrastructure
The panelists are outstanding researchers and leaders from many U.S. and Japanese institutes besides the three hosting universities: University of Tokyo, University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, University of Buffalo, Oak Ridge National Lab, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Energy Transition Finance, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tokyo Electric Power, Kyoto University, Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth (RITE), Gifu University, Nikken Sekkei, Kyushu University, National Institute for Environmental Studies (Japan), and Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry. Many other academic and industrial leaders, such as representatives from Toshiba and Daikin, joined the discussion sessions led by Drs. Ishii and Jin. They also led discussions on the grand challenges for clean energy transition and next steps for EXCET.
Dr. Brad Day, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation at University of Tennessee, gave the conference wrap-up and announced the next EXCET workshop in September 2024 in Knoxville, TN.
Febin Kachirayil with professors Jin, Yamaguchi, and Ishii
Xukang Zhang with professors Jin, Yamaguchi, and Ishii
Yujiro Tanno with professors Jin, Hayashi, and Ishii
Besides the workshop’s rich environment that fostered many productive discussions, a special highlight was a Student Poster Competition. Three students were selected as the winners:
1st: Febin Kachirayil (Osaka University) “Impact of different electric vehicle charging strategies on cost-optimal decentralized energy systems”
2nd: Xukang Zhang (Osaka University) “Building stock energy modeling to assess annual progress in commercial building stock energy efficiency and carbon reduction”
3rd: Yujiro Tanno (Waseda University) “Study on output curtailment of renewable energy sources for grid congestion management”.
There are high hopes for EXCET’s success. The program will expand and deepen UT’s long-term partnership with Japanese universities. The focus on promoting clean energy transitions for climate change and social justice is timely and a significant priority for both partners.