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Nuclear versus Solar Interests in Japan

posted by janrinok on Thursday January 29 2015, @11:43PM   
from the a-fine-balance dept.

tonyPick writes:

IEEE Spectrum have a story on Japanese attempts to throttle back Solar deployments.

Clashing energy interests on the Japanese island of Kyushu have prompted Japan's government to clamp down on solar power development nationwide. While the government calls it a necessary revision to assure grid stability amidst rapidly rising levels of intermittent solar energy, critics see a pro-nuclear agenda at work—one that could stunt Japan's renewable energy potential.

In response to the threat to grid stability Japan’s Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry (METI) is allowing utilities to refuse interconnects from upcoming Solar developments.

On 28 September, Kyushu Electric announced that it had frozen the interconnection of large solar developments.
...
At least four more utilities followed Kyushu Electric’s lead and froze solar interconnections on their grids, arguing that the solar surge threatened their ability to balance supply and demand.

• "no!" is not a solution! (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @08:57AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 30 2015, @08:57AM (#139416)

  not a mathematician here. i'm sure someone can come up with a working recursive equation, so here the outline:

  1) solar grid-tied inverter have a upper and lower bound set to be certified for sell: 210 Volt lower bound and 250 Volt upper-bound.
  a progressive curved is programmed into the inverter. push out max available at lower bound, progressively pushing out less getting nearer to the upper bound.
  2) electricity costs to buy/sell if the grid is at 210 Volts is "very high"!
  3) electricity costs to buy/sell if the grid is at 250 Volts is 0. yes ladies and gentlemen, ZERO. as in free!

  it means that if ther's alot of electrical power usage and the line voltage drops the you can make lots of money producing electricity but it also means that it costs alot to buy electricity. it encourages to produce
  furthermore if the line voltage is a the upper bound it means that you won't get much (if any money) if you produce and that you can turn on all your ... whatever devices (ALU smelter?). it encourages to consume.

  sure the more "near-equator" places get more sun but need more cooling too? geography cannot (yet) made to be fair ... ask the sahara (sun, no water).