Last year, I introduced the "Household Fuel-Cell Cogeneration System" in this blog. Its commercial production has finally begun, and what's more, it has been renamed "Ene Farm" and has become an even more familiar presence for the general public. When I saw it last year I thought it should be given a nickname like "Eco Cute" because the name "Household Fuel-Cell Cogeneration System" is way too long for people to remember. And yes, they have given it a new name!

Normally, power plants are located far away from households and generated power has to travel a long way through power lines to reach people's homes. Therefore, transmission loss is essentially inevitable. It is said that this loss amounts to 4% of the total power generated, which is enough to light every household in Japan. But if we could generate power at home, we would be able to prevent this transmission loss from occurring. "Ene Farm" generates energy through a chemical reaction and uses the heat emitted during the process to make hot water. The heat generated during the process at power plants is released into the air, so "Ene Farm," which makes use of such heat to provide hot water for the kitchen and bathrooms seems really ecological. Panasonic leads the world with this new system and it has begun commercial production of the "Ene Farm" in June 2008. The system will be offered to the Japanese market through a gas company starting next year.

The ‘Fuel Cell Magic Theater’ available this year has been designed to make "Ene Farm" easy to understand even for children. (It’s the mysterious space behind the black curtain I mentioned in the entry I wrote right before the exhibition began). I went and watched the show first thing in the morning today!

Behind the black curtain, there is a space that has a screen on a stage and resembles a small theater. When the performance started an MC appeared amidst the darkness. Animated images popped up on screen one after another. You see the MC and the "Ene Farm" on the stage through these images, so it makes the images appear as though they are floating in mid air! Then, lovable faces appeared on the fuel cell unit and the hot water storage unit that form the "Ene Farm," and started talking to the MC. The show offers an optical illusion that makes you feel as though a real person and moving, changing animation exist in the same space.

The ‘Fuel Cell Magic Theater’ takes place every 10 minutes and there is always a line of visitors waiting at the entrance for the next show. I recommend you to check it out when you visit the Panasonic booth because you can learn about the underlining principles and the structure of "Ene Farm" while being quite entertained!