The world’s first large tonnage magnetic-levitation bearing (Mag- Lev) air cooled chiller for air conditioning is being installed in the American Embassy Tokyo, reveals a press release from the U.S. State Department Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations. This US Energy technology demonstration project will be brought on-line in April coinciding with the Tokyo Sakura Festival.

General Charles E. Williams, Director and Chief Operating Officer of the State Department’s Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO), and Ambassador J. Thomas Schieffer announced this step forward in mechanical engineering and energy technology at the American Embassy Tokyo.
“We see this as the bellwether project in the US State Department’s ambitious worldwide effort to reduce embassy electrical energy consumption especially in air-conditioning systems,” said General
Williams. “Japan’s progressive energy and technology policies were central to selection of the American Embassy Tokyo for this important US energy technology demonstration project.”

Ambassador Schieffer said: “I am truly impressed by the nearly frictionless motor and compressor in the MagLev Chiller. There is no more appropriate place to showcase this carbon dioxide emissions-cutting, energy saving technology than here in Japan.”
OBO is installing a 2520kW (720 tons of cooling) air-cooled chiller plant, consisting of twelve 210 kW MagLev Chiller modules on the roof of US Embassy Tokyo. Antonio Rivera, OBO’s Senior Mechanical Engineer and Project Manager for this US Energy Technology Demonstration Project states that he “expects savings for this $2.8 million project to pay the difference in cost compared with a conventional
chiller system, in less than 10 years. The MagLev Chiller’s ‘greening of the Embassy’ will dramatically reduce Embassy electrical consumption and demand charges. It also eliminates the Embassy’s largest source of water and sewer costs. The air cooled MagLev chiller eliminates disposal of biocide and corrosion control chemical waste and waste water from cooling towers.”

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