Creating a comfortable "air" environment with renewable energy

In order to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, large amounts of electricity from renewable energy sources, such as mega solar power plants and offshore wind power plants, are beginning to be connected to the power grid (power transmission system). While this is expected to increase further in the future, measures to stabilize the power grid are urgently needed due to the instability of supply.

地下水熱・バイオマスCHP・太陽光発電・蓄電池を取り入れた本施設では、「熱利用」「発電」「蓄電」を上手に組み合わせることで、敷地内で創エネとエネルギー消費を完結させて、売電せずに実績値でZEB（旧研究所を基準値とし、オフィス棟で『ZEB』、敷地全体でNearly ZEB）を実現。現在はEMS（大容量蓄電池用電力マネジメントシステム）の制御により発電した電気をオンサイトで完全自己消費していますが、将来的にはこれを用いて電力網の需給に合わせた電力制御の最適化も可能な、グリッドの安定化に貢献する施設です。

The first thing we focused on as an "Innovation Center" was "creating a working space."
When I was a student, I studied the impact of architectural environments on intellectual productivity, and based on the knowledge that "different types of work require different environments," I would move to a place where the space, sound, light, and thermal environment suited my mood and the work I was doing. From this experience, I thought that this facility, where a variety of tasks are carried out, needed to be designed to allow users to adjust and choose their own environment.

Therefore, we decided to proceed with the design based on the theme of "air," which is Takasago Thermal Engineering's specialty, and repeatedly considered designs and facility plans that would suit various tasks and areas, including individual/multiple people working, concentration/meetings/refreshment, etc. Furthermore, we thought that it would be good to have a space in the office where one can experience the "ever-changing" nature of air, rather than just a stable, fully air-conditioned space, so we created closed and open areas.

After completion, the facility conducted demonstration and evaluation based on actual measurements and questionnaire surveys of workers over a period of approximately three years in collaboration with Takasago Thermal Engineering and Waseda University's Tanabe Laboratory.
In the first year (2020), energy consumption increased due to operations that were different from those assumed in the design, such as increased ventilation volume due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but by making operational changes based on the verification and improving personal air conditioning, the office building was able to achieve further energy savings in the second and third years. Today, we are continuing to work toward further improvements and environmental improvements. Although the various initiatives that differed from normal office air conditioning were a major challenge, we obtained useful results that can be used in future designs.
We have received numerous domestic awards, including the Society of Heating, Air-Conditioning and Sanitary Engineers of Japan Award and the Carbon Neutral Grand Prize, but we also took on international awards with these post-completion initiatives in mind, and were able to win first place in Asia in the ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers) Technology Award*.