World Smart Energy Week, held by REED Exhibitor at Tokyo’s Big Sight, has become Japan’s largest and one of the most comprehensive renewable energy exhibitions in the world. Ayabe Yoichiro, show director of REED Japan, indicated that exhibitors this year come from 31 countries and attendees from 65 countries. The scale of the exhibition is growing and next year’s will be 20% larger.

Biomass EXPO is added in World Smart Energy Week for the first time this year. Yoichiro pointed out that biomass in Japan can enjoy the feed-in-tariff (FiT). In addition, many exhibitors have expressed their hopes for a biomass exhibition. Thus, after going through a long period of planning and preparation, REED has finally launched its 1st biomass EXPO, turning this year’s World Smart Energy Week a more colorful one.

“Attendees can see a variety of products from our nine exhibitions. There is also horizontal integration available, such as PV hydrogen fuel and energy storage, which will lead to a more colorful exhibition,” emphasized Yoichiro during an interview.

(Left: Yuki Omichi, Media organizer of World Smart Energy Week/Right: Ayabe Yoichiro, show director of Reed Japan)

Exhibition Change – Substantial Growth of PV System and FC EXPO

PV EXPO and PV System EXPO are two grand events in World Smart Energy Week. We noticed that although PV EXPO is downsized compare to last year, the scale of PV System EXPO has increased significantly. Later, Yoichiro disclosed some numbers and confirmed our observation – the scale of PV system EXPO this year is 1.3-1.5 times last year, in which O&M section caught the most attention this year. This change echoes to EnergyTrend’s forecast on Japan’s future focus on downstream systems.

Like Toyota last year, Honda will launch FCV cars this year, which caused more people to pay attention to FC EXPO this year. According to REED’s statistics, FC EXPO this year has expanded 23% from the previous year. EnergyTrend has also noticed the crowd at FC EXPO when visited and there were many people waiting in line to give it a try to the new Honda FCV.

Although Battery Japan stays pretty much the same, the number of attendees at Battery Japan increased substantially as well, and most of which come from China and Korea, according to Yoichiro and REED. Those registered for Battery Japan Keynote speech also grew 1.5 times, forcing REED to hold Battery Japan at a nearby commercial office building due to insufficient space at Tokyo's Big Sight.

Yoichiro believes in the increasing importance of electric vehicles (EVs) in China and Taiwan, hence he encouraged more people to participate in Battery Japan. When EnergyTrend asked Yoichiro if REED will hold an independent exhibition for EV in the future, he said no, but thought it’s a great proposal.

Future Exhibition Development

World Smart Energy Week is a B2B exhibition. Its goal is to become an exhibition that covers all kinds of energy. Therefore, REED will add “Next-Generation Thermal Power Exhibition” (translated by EnergyTrend) next year. ECO House & ECO Building EXPO will go solo. Urban Housing Reform Exhibition (translated by EnergyTrend) will be held for the first time in Yokohama in October this year. As for Tokyo’s World Smart Energy Week 2017, it will still consist of 9 major exhibitions.

Big Sight will build a new exhibition hall at East stadium next year. Meanwhile, REED will allocate the booths, sidewalks, and rest areas more efficiently to accommodate more exhibitors and visitors. “After ECO House & ECO Building EXPO going solo, there will be more space for new exhibitions,” said Yoichiro.