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Japanese companies are building some of the world's biggest battery systems to address one of solar power's biggest problems–its volatility.
Handling the surges in power when the sun shines and storing that energy for use when it is cloudy or dark is a major headache for solar power producers and the utilities they supply.
Mitsubishi Electric Corp and NGK Insulators Ltd. are assembling a 50,000 kilowatt battery system for Kyushu Electric Power Co to study ways to better accommodate solar power.
A slightly smaller, 40,000 kilowatt battery system is under construction in Minami Soma, north of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, for Tohoku Electric Power Co. to conduct similar research.
The government is financing both projects at a total cost of ¥31.7 billion ($257 million), a government official said.
Original Submission
(Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Saturday June 27 2015, @06:36AM
We've seen this cropping up in a lot of places, Arizona, Hawaii, etc.
Japan's bigger problem is (as TFA mentions) is that they have a number of disjoint smaller incompatible electrical grids. That fact exacerbates the situation when a boat load solar joins the network. There isn't enough stable demand nor a big enough generator to stabilize the grids. Hooking them together might help.
But this variable supply problem needs a solution in a lot of places, and maybe big storage could be that solution, but there sure don't seem to be many scale-able solutions. Even this story is thin on details, just calling these plants "Batteries". That covers a lot of territory.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.