Preface
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Because of the exhaustion of fossil fuel and uncertainty for global environment, Japanese government has been taking an active part in development of new energy for the past 20 years. In 1992, Agency of Industrial Science and Technology in the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) presented the project entitled International Clean Energy Network Using Hydrogen Conversion (WE-NET: World Energy Network), as a part of the New Sunshine Project. The WE-NET project aims at efficient utilization of energy with its focus on renewable energy that is unevenly distributed in the world. This project will include hydrogen production from water by harnessing renewable energy, transportation of hydrogen by converting to the form suitable for transportation, and supply to large energy consuming areas. This project term is divided into three phases extending over a 28-year period, from 1993 to 2020. The target of this project is the establishment of not only hardware technologies such as hydrogen energy but of software technologies that will realize its introduction throughout the world. The world-wide diffusion of the WE-NET project will contribute to the reduction of carbon dioxide, alleviation of international energy supply and demand, and creating opportunities for more energy production and for fostering export industries in countries blessed with renewable energy.
Efforts have to be made to find out solutions for environmental problems including global warning and energy crisis that will both become world-scale serious problems in the 21st century. It is an important theme to develop WE-NET project into an international cooperative research program on a global-scale. We hope that this project will contribute to the leading of broad and active discussion on policies and R&D of clean energy.
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