Tokyo Olympics prepare for heat effect

The Japanese are renowned for their organisation, so it's not really a surprise that with one year to go until the Olympic Games in Tokyo, preparations are well and truly on track.

Spray stations are part of the plan to limit the
effects of heat at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Venue construction is on track and ticket sales have exceeded expectations. But one of the key - albeit limited - problems facing these games is likely to be out of Japan's control - heat.

North Asia Correspondent Jake Sturmer reports from the host city.

Listen to the story from Radio National - “Tokyo Olympics prepare for heat effect.”

Victorian coal to keep lights on in Japan, says Turnbull

On one of Victoria’s hottest mid-April days on record, Australian and Japanese leaders gathered at the base of Loy Yang, the state’s biggest power plant, to launch a project to secure the long-term future of its vast brown coal reserves.

Malcolm Turnbull says brown coal might
one day keep the lights on in Japan.

If this $496 million pilot project to convert the Latrobe Valley’s brown coal into liquid hydrogen pays off, there is hope that a new export industry will be created that will fuel the valley’s coal-dependent economy for many decades to come.

Speaking at the launch of the project between Australia and Japan in the Latrobe Valley, Prime Minister Turnbull highlighted the government's agnostic position on energy, one of the main tenets of the National Energy Guarantee, which has been used to increase the role of coal in Australia's energy mix.

Read the story from The Age by Adam Carey and Cole Latimer - “Victorian coal to keep lights on in Japan, says Turnbull.”

Victoria's plans for hydrogen exports to Japan are 'way of making brown coal look green'

Latrobe’s Hazelwood power station will close
 on 31 March and the Victorian government
 is looking to create new jobs there.

Victorian government plans to work with a Japanese company to produce hydrogen from brown coal in the Latrobe Valley are “a way of making brown coal look green”, according to one expert.

The proposed plant, which would be run by Kawasaki Heavy Industries as part of their Kawasaki Hydrogen Road project, would produce liquid hydrogen that would then be exported to Japan to be used in hydrogen-powered vehicles.

Maritime authorities from both Australia and Japan signed a world-first deal to ship liquid hydrogen in Canberra on Wednesday, but Victoria’s acting resources minister, Philip Dalidakis, said the project was still “in the very early stages”.

Read Calla Wahlquist’s story on The Guardian - “Victoria's plans for hydrogen exports to Japan are 'way of making brown coal look green'.”