Companies impose energy limits amid power crunch

"Blessing in disguise" - local sales/exports are down so they may even apply 20% cut.

Energy shortage might be a long term problem for Japan. These companies should invest in installing solar panels that can be located on the top of the roof. Although solar panels and their accessories may be expensive to buy at the onset, money is saved in the long run. This is because energy from the sun is widely available and free. Japan's energy uncertainty is a major frustration for many companies.

@sfjp: I tried to explain this to my boss but he quickly gave me an official list of excuses of why they don't want to do it. I personally think it is ridiculous especially since there is nothing on the roof at the moment. There would be plenty of space to install solar panels. It's just troublesome to look everything up and get it done, hence the list of excuses. What a miserable bunch of sheeple.

The amount of power produced by a solar Panel cannot even drive a machine, not even enough for a refrigerator. If it was so efficient, lots of companies would have opted for it a long time. Good to save electricity for unnecessary things, but cutting production in Factories and reducing business hours in major industries will only have a negative impact to the economic growth.

Ban overtime and encourage people to take extended holidays throughout the summer.

Major department store Mitsukoshi said it has turned off unnecessary lights and disabled some elevators and escalators

I really hope in this case the elevators be used with priority by disabled, mothers with strollers, very elderly people, not by anyone who is lazy enough to climb stairs, including young couples and genki middle aged women.

Joke?

disabled some elevators and escalators.

What? Excuse me? I beg your pardon? Did I hear it right? Would you repeat it once for me?

Although solar panels and their accessories may be expensive to buy at the onset, money is saved in the long run

Most solar panels have a payback time of about fifteen years. Business is business. They don't have money to burn, and they must make a profit every year or go out of business. it doesn't make any economic sense for ANY business to invest in anything that has more than a three or four year payback time. Solar panels, wind turbines, and all other GREEN energy may sound nice, but they are very expensive and inefficient. Any country or business that thinks they can rely solely, or even predominantly, on GREEN energy will find itself in heap of financial trouble in a short amount of time.

The only solution is to adjust the price of electricity until there are NO outages. You can choose an air conditioned train for three times the price of a non air conditioned train. You can choose a well air conditioned department store with prices ten percent higher than one with a thermostat set at 28 degrees. You can buy a cool drink from a machine for 400 yen, or you can buy a room temperature drink for 100 yen. You can play in a well air conditioned pachinko parlor with an average payout of 80 percent or one with plenty of windows and a payout of 90 percent. The market is always more efficient than government bureaucrats trying to control everything.

It also brought forward the start of the business day by one hour to 8:30 a.m.,

And the close of the business day?

I heard the very same canard this week from some halfwit at a governmental office. "To save enazi, we will open office two hours early", he said. When I asked if the office was also going to be closing two hours earlier also, he looked at me like I was trying to trick him.

"No, Japanese people is very hard worker"

"Then surely you're using more energy by having the office open longer?"

He just stood there, blinking. Could not compute. Somebody with white hair had written that having every machine running for two hours longer was an energy-saving measure, and thus it must be.

In these days there is a lot of talking about how to save energy. Leveraging my technical background,I wanted to help Japan not only providing donations as food, money and clothes, but explaining techniques for lowering the energy footprint, related to IT field. So I organized a seminar at Italian Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ICCJ), covering also strategies for quickly restore operation in Tohoku affected areas, as like as ensuring the business continuity in case of other disasters or brown outs. The economic impact of these scenarios will be seen not only in the short term, and will affect Japan as a whole. The presentation is available here http://www.box.net/shared/re89gpszc0mvv3114a7z for free, the seminar doesn't want to sell anything and is not sponsored by any Vendor, it is just evangelization. The speech was thought for beginners/intermediate audience, but the Q&A session went in details for specific scenarios, also covering social and economic implications. One of the technology I think it will be particularly useful is Virtualization. Even if it is a well known, tested and widely used technology outside of Japan, here is still not adopted massively. It is the only technology that proves to be efficient from economic and energetic point of view. I am happy to explain the concepts to anybody interested in adopting....

Working from home, even for a few days a week really would help. No daily commute, meetings could be done virtually for the main part. Think how much energy that would save! People are going to start dying of heat stroke if they have to travel on those trains in long shirt sleeves and suit trousers. It is insane. Im really quite worried about my husband on those trains.

Ivan, you made me laugh!

legs - I'm always glad to raise a smile for a pair of legs. And to raise a pair of legs, for that matter.

Ivan & legs - Get to work early and be quiet, ha ha!

Have they put limits on pachinko parlors? When they do that, then you know they are serious.

gaijinfoJul. 02, 2011 - 10:39AM JST. Most solar panels have a payback time of about fifteen years. Business is business. They don't have money to burn, and they must make a profit every year or go out of business. it doesn't make any economic sense for ANY business to invest in anything that has more than a three or four year payback time. Solar panels, wind turbines, and all other GREEN energy may sound nice, but they are very expensive and inefficient.

What you're saying is do nothing because there is no reward. This is a wrong approach. In Tokyo, You have 20 million people living within 100km radius. My point is that if goverment offer tax credits to individual homes or businesses that invest in solar panels, it would help in a small scale for long term energy problems in Japan. The goverment could offer generous 25-33 percent in tax credit by deferring over 5-10 years. Some affluent families will accept. What if you have 5000 homes in Japan signing up annually? This would mean 40,000-50,000 homes that might be more self sufficient in 10 years, comparing to your ideas of doing nothing. The excess energy that is produced by the individuals or business can be sold to utility companies.