The Environment Ministry is set to install environment-friendly fuel cells at public elementary and junior high schools in a bid to raise children's awareness of problems involving global warming, ministry officials said Tuesday.

In fiscal 2005, the ministry intends to introduce fuel cells to 10 schools across the country, and by fiscal 2006, they will have been installed in at least one school in each of the nation's 47 prefectures. Selected schools will get fuel cells with an output of 10 kilowatts. 

The ministry has decided to demand that 100 million yen be allocated for the project from the fiscal 2005 state budget.

Fuel cells generate electric power through chemical reactions between oxygen that exists in the air and hydrogen. Such cells can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 40 percent.

The amount of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, emitted by schools, office buildings and other commercial facilities has recently been increasing.