5. German-Japanese Environment and Energy Dialogue Forum, 2013

The German-Japanese Environmental and Energy Dialogue Forum offers a public, bilateral exchange on environmentally relevant issues. It has been organised annually since 2007 by the Federal Environment Ministry and the Japanese New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO) and takes place alternately in Germany and Japan. It is organised by ECOS Consult.

The fifth forum was held in Berlin in January 2013 under the title "From the electric car to the smart home: intelligent solutions for a sustainable energy future". 220 participants followed German and Japanese experts in Berlin as they discussed high-tech solutions for the energy network of the future. Another topic was - after the earthquake and the subsequent nuclear disaster in Fukushima in 2011 - the unresolved energy supply of the island state.

Japanese industry is currently addressing this question with the expansion of renewable energies and grid restructuring. The presentations at the forum dealt with intelligently controlled energy management with regard to the grid as well as wind power and solar plants. Other contributions focused on the coupling of electric cars and smart homes, current findings from field trials, and battery and engine recycling for the recovery of rare earths. The speakers came from companies and institutions such as NTT, Toshiba, Mitsubishi Electric, Hitachi, 50 Herz, N-ERGIE, Toyota, NEDO, Öko-Institut, Siemens, BMW, smartLab, H.C. Starck and Daimler.

The organizers - the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), the speakers and the participants agreed to intensively explore cooperation opportunities in the field of electromobility and smart communities. They also wanted to continue the close exchange of information on current trends in these areas at the level of industry, politics and science.