Document summary
Following the tsunami triggered by the Tohoku Earthquake in March 2011, rolling blackouts and the prospect of summer power shortages have steadily heightened energy-conservation consciousness in Japan. Now the construction of new nuclear power plants looks to be running into difficulties both in Japan and worldwide, alternative energies will be reassessed as indispensable and not simply seen as a means of fighting global warming. The contributions LEDs and insulating glass could make to energy conservation, solar cells and the auxiliary storage battery market as alternative energy sources are analysed.