According to numerous news outlets and documents shared by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG), the organising committee of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, is planning to create a 6,000-unit Olympic village which will function on hydrogen (H2) fuel.
It has been reported that Yoichi Masuzoe, governor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has reserved $350m in a special fund to subsidise H2 fuel cell cars and fuelling stations in the run-up to the Olympics.
According to the multiple news reports, H2 fuel will also be used for the torch at the start of the relay in Fukushima Prefecture. This torch is then used by the final torchbearer to light the cauldron at the new national stadium in Tokyo, the venue for the opening ceremony.
As H2 fuel does not emit carbon dioxide (CO2) at the time of combustion and is a seemingly inexhaustible energy source on Earth, it is referred to as the ‘ultimate clean energy.’
Following the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, currently, 93% of Japan’s electricity comes from fossil fuels. Now underway in Namie, Fukushima Prefecture, the national New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO), major industrial gas company Iwatani Corporation and other entities are building one of the worlds largest H2 production plants to supply this new venture.
