“ENERGY”

Wednesday, 20th February 2013, Embassy of Austria, Tokyo

• 14:00 Welcome by Dr. Bernhard Zimburg, Ambassador of Austria to Japan
• 14:10 Gerhard Fasol, “today’s agenda”
• 14:20 – 14:40 Robert Geller
  Professor of Geophysics University of Tokyo, seismologist. First ever tenured non-Japanese faculty member at the University of Tokyo
  “A seismologist looks at nuclear power plant safety issues”
• 14:40 – 15:20 Gerhard Fasol
  Physicist. CEO of Eurotechnology Japan KK, served as Assoc Professor at Tokyo University and Lecturer at Cambridge University and Manager of Hitachi Cambridge R&D lab
  “Ludwig Boltzmann – the disrespectful revolutionary”
• 15:40 – 16:20 Kiyoshi Kurokawa
  Academic Fellow of GRIPS and former Chairman of Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission by National Diet of Japan
  “Creativity, Crazy Ones and Power of Pull”
• 16:40 – 17:20 Shuji Nakamura
  Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara. Inventor of GaN LEDs and lasers, which are the basis for the global LED lighting revolution.
  “The global lighting revolution and the changes I want for Japan”
• 17:20 – 17:30 Gerhard Fasol “Summary”
• Followed by reception (private, invitation only)

Registration: latest 10 February 2013 (by invitation only)

Further information:
Gerhard Fasol
Peter Storer, Minister for Cultural Affairs, Embassy of Austria

Summary

Robert Geller: “A seismologist looks at nuclear power plant safety issues”

Robert Geller gave an overview of large scale earthquakes and tsunamis in different regions of earth, and in history, and explained that large “Tohoku-2011” scale earth quakes and tsunamis do have a finite probability of striking Japan, and need to be taken in to account in the construction of structures such as nuclear power plants. Robert Geller in particular explained and emphasized the risks on the northern coast of Japan, facing the Sea of Japan.

Gerhard Fasol: “Ludwig Boltzmann – the disrespectful revolutionary”

Gerhard Fasol reviewed Ludwig Boltzmann’s life and work, and particular Boltzmann’s efforts to promote open discussion and to destroy dogmatic views, most importantly the rejection of atoms by Oswald’s school of “energetics” and Mach. Ludwig Boltzmann’s work is fundamental in many areas of today’s physics, technology, IT, energy and in many other fields. As a demonstration of Ludwig Boltzmann’s work linking the macrosopic face of Entropy with the statistical properties of atoms and molecules, Gerhard Fasol explained today’s state of development of electrical power production from the entry of mixing of water with different concentrations of salts, from salinity gradients. “Osmotic powerplants”, which are directly based on Boltzmann’s work on the Entropy of mixing, have the potential to be developed into a very important contribution to our future renewable energy mix, although much research still remains to be done, especially in the area of semipermeable membranes.

Kiyoshi Kurokawa: “Creativity, Crazy Ones and Power of Pull – Uncertain Times: Changing Principles”

Kiyoshi Kurokawa laid out the rapid and dramatic changes we are currently facing in our world: the development of the global information revolution, revolutions towards democracy in the arab world, the Sept-11 terror attacks, and the triple disaster in Tohoku in March 2011. As short summary of the information revolution, linked with other major developments of global impact:

web 1.0: 1991-2000 – end of cold war, world wide web, globalization and financial crises: 1990, 1992, 1997

web 2.0: 2001-2010 – 9.11, digital age, wireless, touch panel, growth of emerging economies, BRICs, global financial crisis 2007, and President Barak Obama

web 3.0: 2011- – Arab Spring, and March-11 Tohoku disaster

Paradigm shift of The Principles (Joi Ito, MIT Media Lab, and Kiyoshi Kurokawa, GRIPS):

The principles 1:
RESILIENCE instead of strength
RISK instead of safety
SYTEMS instead of objects

The principles 2:
COMPASSES instead of maps
PULL instead of push
PRACTICE instead of theory

The principles 3:
DISOBEDIENCE instead of compliance
CROWDS instead of experts
LEARNING instead of education

For his work as former Chairman of Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission by National Diet of Japan, Kiyoshi Kurokawa was recently awarded the “Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award” by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Kiyoshi Kurokawa paid particular attention for the deliberations and fact finding by the Independent Investigation Commission was open and transparent, and published globally in Japanese and in English in many different forms. The report itself can be downloaded here: http://warp.da.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/3856371/naiic.go.jp/index.html

Kiyoshi Kurokawa emphasised the contribution of “Regulatory Capture” to the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Important work on “Regulatory Capture” was done by US economist George Stigler, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1982. Kiyoshi Kurokawa emphasized that Regulatory Capture is not specific to Japan, there are many examples throughout the world.

Shuji Nakamura: “The global lighting revolution and the changes I want for Japan”

Shuji Nakamura briefly outlined his inventions of a long series of GaN based devices, GaN LEDs and lasers, which are the basis for the global lighting revolution, and for bluray storage technology. Shuji Nakamura gave us a passionate personal view of his work as a researcher, how he created and experienced the breakthroughs, and some consequences on his personal life. Shuji Nakamura explained how he was accused in a US court by his former employer, and how as a consequence in order to defend himself and his family, he saw himself forced to countersue his former employer in Japanese courts. Shuji Nakamura compared his situation as a researcher in Japan, and now in Santa Barbara, and made some suggestions for change for the position of researchers.

Photos

Contact

Copyright Eurotechnology Japan KK. All Rights Reserved.

“ENERGY”

• on Monday, 20th February 2012
• 14:00 Welcome by Thomas Loidl, Chargé d’affaires ad interim of the Austrian Embassy
• 14:10 Gerhard Fasol: today’s agenda”
• 14:20 – 14:40 Tatsuo Masuda
  Professor at Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, served as Director of Oil Markets and Emergency Preparedness of IEA
  “New energy architecture for Japan”
• 14:40 – 15:20 Kiyoshi Kurokawa (schedule permitting)
  Chairman of Japan’s Parliamentary Commission on the Fukushima Disaster, served as Special Cabinet Advisor on Science, Technology and Innovation
  “Fukushima crisis fueling the third opening of Japan”
• 15:50 – 16:10 Hideaki Watanabe
  Corporate Vice-President, Nissan Motor Company, in charge of Electric Vehicles and Zero Emission Business
  “The new energy management supported by Electric Vehicles”
• 16:10 – 16:30 Robert Geller
  Professor of Geophysics University of Tokyo, seismologist. First ever tenured non-Japanese faculty member at the University of Tokyo
  “Understanding earthquakes: let’s put the physics back into geophysics!”
• 16:50 – 17:30 Gerhard Fasol
  Physicist. CEO of Eurotechnology Japan KK, served as Assoc Professor at Tokyo University and Lecturer at Cambridge University and Manager of Hitachi Cambridge R&D lab
  “Ludwig Boltzmann and the laws governing energy”
• 17:30 – 17:50 Jonathan M Dorfan
  Particle physicist
  President, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, OIST. Served as Director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
  “New Solutions for Energy – OIST’s R&am;D Program”
• Followed by reception (private, invitation only)

Registration: latest 15 February 2011
Further information:
Gerhard Fasol
Peter Storer, Minister for Cultural Affairs, Embassy of Austria

Summary

Tatsuo Masuda: “New energy architecture for Japan”

Tatsuo Masuda described how Japan’s energy strategy and policy was until recently determined more or less behind closed doors by a group of about 100 insiders, of which Tatsuo Masuda has been one. This situation could continue as long as nothing went wrong.

Atomic energy was introduced to Japan via the USA, and instead of growing nuclear technology over an extended period of time within Japan, policians decided on a very short time schedule, which made it impossible to develop nuclear technology within Japan, and left purchase of ready-made nuclear power-plants and adoption of nuclear power technology from the USA as the only option.

Tatsuo Masuda predicts the “democratization” of electrical power generation in Japan. While at present almost all electrical power in Japan is produced by regional monopoly companies, in the future a development is likely, where many organizations, corporations, and private citizens will take part, or even may take over the main task or producing electrical energy in Japan.

Hideaki Watanabe: “The new energy management supported by Electric Vehicles”

Hideki Watanabe explained Nissan’s Leaf electrical vehicle program, and the associated energy technologies and businesses. During the coffee break, participants studied a Lead car, and an animated discussion took place about advantages and disadvantages of electrical cars, and in particular the Lead with respect to cold weather performance and other extreme conditions

Mr Watanabe explained that the Leaf electric car is the center of an energy management system, where the battery of Leaf electric car is an integral part of the energy management of the owner’s household.

Robert Geller: “Understanding earthquakes: let’s put the physics back into geophysics!”

Robert Geller calls for an return to the principles of physics in understanding earth quakes and in preparing for future disasters, instead of following positions based on political or funding priorities.

Robert Geller for a long time has been arguing for the view, that the timing, location and strength of earthquakes cannot be predicted due to fundamental principles of physics, and the nature of the earth. Robert demonstrated his arguments by bending a pencil in front of us (see photos below). While the stress distribution and other details can be calculated with precision, it is not possible to predict the time and the way the pencil breaks with accuracy. Robert argues that in a similar way, earth quakes can also not be predicted, because earth quakes are essentially in the mathematical sense chaotic phenomena.

Robert explained how a group of earth scientists years ago promised that they could predict earth quakes with the purpose of obtaining politically motivated funding for their research. They were successful in obtaining continuous research funding with the explicit purpose of developing methods to predict earthquakes. Once this funding started flowing for many years now, it is very difficult for scientists obtaining this funding to put the possibility of earthquake prediction in question.

Robert also discussed official earth quake risk maps, and explained that many of the strongest earth quakes occur in areas which are officially designated as low risk areas.

Robert called for a reassessment of earth quake policies and preparations for future disasters, using the most up-to-date results of earth-science, and to review outdated positions, and abandon those positions, which have been shown to be invalid using established methods of physics.

Gerhard Fasol: “Ludwig Boltzmann and the laws governing energy”

Gerhard Fasol reviewed Ludwig Boltzmann’s life and work, and particular his life-long work on the fundamental laws of physics governing energy.

Jonathan M Dorfan: “New Solutions for Energy – OIST’s R&D Program”

Jonathan Dorfan introduced OIST, The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, which has just recently been accredited as a Graduate University by the Japanese Ministry of Education, and introduced several research programs in the field of energy generation.

Jonathan explained the history of OIST, and OIST’s pioneering position as an English speaking international Graduate University in Japan. In particular, OIST has no Departments which would create barriers between research groups, instead the emphasis is on cross-disciplinary cooperation supported by the latest instrumentats and research tools. According to Jonathan, OIST succeeds in attracting most outstanding staff and students – surprisingly current market conditions seem to make it easier to attract outstanding research staff than students – the market for attracting outstanding students seems to be more competitive than for research staff. OIST offers scholarships for students, many or all of which are graduates from top ranking undergraduate schools.

Photos

Contact

Copyright Eurotechnology Japan KK. All Rights Reserved

Topic “Space and Energy and Ludwig Boltzmann”

on Thursday, 17th February 2011, Embassy of Austria, Tokyo.

• 14:00 Welcome by Michael Haider, Cultural Counsellor of the Austrian Embassy
• 14:10 – 14:40 Gerhard Fasol,
  “Ludwig Boltzmann: Pioneer of understanding Space and Energy”
• 15:00 – 15:45 Tetsuhiko Ikegami, PhD
  Chairman, Space Activities Commission, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)
  “Japan’s space activities and international space cooperation
• 16:00 – 16:30 Kevin Yu
  Director of Asia Pacific, Tesla Motors Japan
  “The Tesla Motors Electric Car”
• 16:30-17:00 Tatsuo Masuda
  Professor, Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, Advisor JAPEX, and Board Member SOC Corporation
  “Economics and Geopolitics of Climate Change
• Followed by reception (private, invitation only)

Registration: latest 15 February
Further information:
Gerhard Fasol
Georg Poestinger, Counsellor, Austrian Embassy, Tel 03-3451-8281

Summary

Gerhard Fasol: “Ludwig Boltzmann: Pioneer of understanding Space and Energy”

Gerhard Fasol reviewed Ludwig Boltzmann’s pioneering work on space and energy, starting with and overview of Ludwig Boltzmann’s personal live. Boltzmann’s first scientific publication was “Über die Bewegung der Elektrizität in krummen Flächen” (propagation of electricity on curved surfaces) in 1865 at the age of 21 years. This work followed the publication of the Maxwell’s equations by James Clerk Maxwell, in 1861-1862, which of course were a very hot scientific event at that time. All together about 1/5th of Boltzmann’s work was about electro-magnetism.

Ludwig Boltzmann became Full Professor at the age of 25 years at the University of Graz, and at the age of 43 years, became Rektor (= President) of the University of Graz. He travelled extensively, including three trips to the United States of America. Without doubt his frequent travel also encouraged
Boltzmann’s interest in aviation. In Boltzmann’s days, it was not clear yet, which way aviation would be successful, or if it would be successful at all. There were three options: (1) baloons, (2) aerodynamic wings and airscrew, and (3) bird-like flapping wings. Boltzmann clearly prefered and supporte research for flight experiments with aerodynamic wings and airscrews – propellers.

Ludwig Boltzmann worked on the fundamentals of space science, he gave much thought on the irreversibility of time, and on whether space is Euclidic or curved.

Concluding his talk, Gerhard Fasol, reviewed what we can learn here in Japan from Ludwig Boltzmann. It is clear that Japan currently is in a very difficult situation with many challenges. Ludwig Boltzmann’s work clearly points to solutions for some of the challenges facing Japan now, and also indicates some paths to be taken.

Tetsuhiko Ikegami: “Japan’s space activities and international space cooperation”

Dr. Ikegami reminded us of the miracle, that our planet earth holds an only 50 km thin
atmosphere for about 4.5 billion years, and most people on earth are not even conscientously
aware of this miracle.

The Hayabusa space probe was on its way between 2003 – 2010 for more than 7 years, and landed in Australia on 13 June 2010, awaited with great expectation and sympathy. The Minister of MEXT praised JAXA, the Universities and small and medium entreprises, he explained that a Minister of MEXT had never before praised small and medium enterprises before, because in Japan’s silo ministry system, small and medium enterprises are the responsibility of the Economics and Industry Ministry, METI.

The interplanetary kite-craft IKAROS probe consists of a 14 meter x 14 meter sail, and was driven by light pressure from the sun – the light force corresponds to 0.1 gG. A thin-film solar battery and liquid crystals control the light reflection for steering.

In the Japanese population the space program finds great interest and sympathy. Hayabusa’s return encouraged people in an uncertain society. Several books about space and space exploration became best-sellers and were rewarded with prestigious book awards.

In the Japanese population the space program finds great interest and sympathy. Hayabusa’s return encouraged people in an uncertain society. Several books about space and space exploration became best-sellers and were rewarded with prestigious book awards.

Japan is an active participant in the international space station, contributing the Kibo module.

Japan did an exceptionally good job in space, with relatively small budgets compared to US and EU space budgets.

Dr. Ikegami concluded with an outlook on future programs, and on the key issues facing space exploration and space development

Kevin Yu: “The Tesla Motors Electric Car”

Tesla Motors wants to change the global car industry. Why did Tesla start by building an electric sports car, while the world does not really need another sports car? Tesla wanted to make electric cars exciting! After the Tesla Roadster, Tesla will introduce a family saloon, the Tesla S, at about 1/2 the price of the Roadster, and with three battery options to choose from for a driving range of 160, 200 and 300 miles.

Governments cannot pay people enough to bring a breakthrough for electric cars – instead consumers must want to buy electric cars without Government subsidies. To achieve such consumer demand, electric cars must be more exciting, better, higher performance and cheaper than traditional gasoline driven cars.

Tesla uses the same batteries as are used for laptop computers. Therefore advances in battery technology will happen independent of Tesla’s battery procurement. What matters instead is how Tesla uses and manages the energy. Therefore Tesla’s key intellectual property is in energy management and usage, not in battery technology itself.

Tetsuo Masuda: “Economics and Geopolitics of Climate Change”

Climate change originates from the beginning of industrialization in the 18th century. A key issue in order to achieve change in positive directions is political leadership. Since political leadership is usually focussed on short term issues in order to achieve victory at elections, it is necessary to impress the importance of climate change issues on political leaders. Natural disasters, food shortages, huge movements of refugees are events which impact political leaders to take action in the right direction. Developed and developing countries have different interests, and discussions are necessary in order resolve these differences of interest.

Photos

Dr. Ikegami, Chairman of Japan’s Space Commission, explains Japan’s space exploration program

Kevin Yu, Head of Asia-Pac for Tesla Motors, demonstrates a Tesla Roadster

Dr. Ikegami, Head of Japan’s Space Commission, test drives a Tesla Roadster

Kevin Yu, Head of Asia-Pac for Tesla Motors, explains Tesla Roadster’s battery and motor system

Michael Haider, Cultural Attache of the Austrian Embassy test drives a Tesla Roadster

Kevin Yu, Head of Asia-Pac for Tesla Motors, explains Tesla Motor’s strategy, while Dr. Ikegami, Head of Japan’s Space Commission listens

Tatsuo Masuda explains geopolitics of global warming

Reception

Contact

Copyright Eurotechnology Japan KK. All Rights Reserved.