Power storage systems spreading in post-disaster Japan

[bananas]

http://www.shimbun.denki.or.jp/en/news/20111025_02.html

The Denki Shimbun - The Electric Daily News

Power storage systems spreading in post-disaster Japan

Oct. 25, 2011

TOKYO --Following the Great East Japan Earthquake, power storage systems installed with lithium batteries are coming to the fore and spreading for use as emergency power sources. Companies including Toshiba, GS Yuasa, Panasonic Electric Works and NEC are injecting large-capacity systems of this type into the market, one after the other.

Many of these products are equipped with a peak-shifting function for storing up power during the night, when there is little demand for power, and supplying it during the day, when there is higher demand. In the summer of 2011, the people of Japan were faced with a power shortage due to the shutdown of nuclear power stations. The peak-shifting function was incorporated with an awareness of this problem.

There is another factor driving the diffusion of these systems. The program for purchase of the entire quantity of power generated with renewable energy is scheduled for execution in 2012, and it is viewed as a virtual certainty that this will accelerate the installation of photovoltaic generation systems and wind turbines. These sources are marked by a high degree of output fluctuation, and their connection to the grid in large quantities will make it harder to absorb this fluctuation solely by means of the grid. Power storage systems are anticipated to be of service for this purpose in the future.

The expansion of the market for lithium cells, mainly in connection with electric vehicles (EVs), is adding more impetus to the growth of the market for power storage systems. Meanwhile, automakers are hastening to develop vehicle-to-home technology for supply of power to homes from EVs. Manufacturers of heavy electrical machinery such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are promoting a proposal combining generators and railway systems, which are some of their mainstay products, with storage cells. This trend could very possibly change the shape of power supply and utilization.

[kristopher]

1. A consensus has formed and this is what I expected to see as a result.

As Japan was dealing with trying to get Fukushima under control the nation, under Prime Minister Kan, was engaged in a process of consensus building. As I saw these products being rolled out, and the moves by Kan to enable renewable energy to enter the market in spite of the wish of the too powerful utilities, I concluded that a consensus had emerged and that, no matter the political landscape going forward, grass roots action was going to move the country at a fairly rapid pace towards a distributed renewable energy infrastructure. For a thousand years the people have been working together, almost always at the village level, to make sure they could survive. This is just one more example of a well established problem solving strategy that does not rely on central authority.

Thanks for posting this bananas.