A visit to World Smart Energy Week in Tokyo

Friday afternoon I visited World Smart Energy Week at the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition hall.  As in past recent years it is a huge event with hundreds (thousands?) of exhibition booths, and features solar, wind, biomass, fuel cells, battery technology, as well as an "energy market liberalization" exhibitions.  My impressions from a few hours spent greeting former business partners and walking the halls.

1.  Solar has not gone away in Japan.  In 2015, Japan continued to be the #2 market for solar PV in the world, and I recently saw a prediction for another 8GW of new installations in 2016, retaining at least the #3 position.  There is even SOME new greenfield development going on despite the difficulties of obtaining interconnection and the risk of curtailment.  And the solar exhibition remains by far the largest and most well attended, with a mood even on the last afternoon of the exhibition not at all glum.

The Kyocera exhibit had a feature on "floating solar" power plants which focused on the 1.7MW "nishi-ike" project in Takaoka that we developed for them, as well as trumpeting their 13MW project now underway. 

 2.  Solar PV technology just gets better and better, incrementally.  What would have been a 245 or 250 watt module back in 2011, is now a 300 watt module.  What would have been a 280 watt 72-cell module is now a 330 or 340 watt module, and it can be available as a bi-facial product so have actual output closer to that of a 400 watt mono-facial equivalent.  There are a wide range of approaches -- Sunpower high efficiency modules, PERC modules, 5-busbar models (instead of the old 3-busbar).  The First Solar "Tetrasun" module having 18~18.3% module efficiency is now on sale.  Solo Power Japan is actually selling its flexible, light weight CIGS modules that were barely out of the lab (and having trouble being commercialized) in 2013.

DSM, a Netherlands-based speciality chemical company, makes coatings and films for module.

All these things add up to a huge increase in output for the same project.

A Solo Power module -- rollable and this one weighs 2.1kgs - 90 watts ... can be glued onto a rooftop.

Solarworld bi-facial module. 72 cell 320 watt, but up to 400 watts production possible including reverse side, at a high albedo groundcover location.

3.  Microinverter manufacturers have been trying to get into Japan for years, without success.  But at PV Japan I met one company, NEP, that is actually selling its product in Japan. They told me that they are approved for use in the utilities, and their product is going onto a 315kWp floating solar project in Fukuoka that will be done this month.  This is a perfect solution to the issue of "where do we put the inverter" that inevitably comes up with floating solar projects in Japan -- the local authorities resist strongly any heavy equipment being located on the levy surrounding the pond.

4.  Floating offshore wind experiments continue.  The Fukushima national demonstration project is now nearing its next phase, with several different designs of floating offshore wind to be tested (including the Principle Power design as implemented by Mitsui Zosen).  It will not happen overnight, it it is great to imagine a future in 15 or 20 years when Japan could get massive electricity from a flotilla of offshore wind farms.

Nobody home at the USA Pavilion's Principle Power booth.
Maybe they are over at the Fukushima offshore wind project displays?

5.  Fuel Cells.  The hydrogen car is for real.   The Honda Clarity FCV will be available for sale from next week, joining Toyotas Mirai.  Nissan will follow soon.  Almost 75 hydrogen filling stations are in operation in Japan, with many more to follow.  The combined heat and power Enefarm home fuel cells are slowly getting better.  Lots of companies were exhibiting in this area. Kawasaki Heavy Industries had a nice pamphlet outlining all their activities related to this new business opportunity.

East Japan hydrogen fueling stations.

West Japan hydrogen fueling stations

6. Basic energy conservation gets featured at WSEW in the Eco House and Eco Buildings exhibition.  Glass wool insulation!  Better reflective/insulating paint coatings!  Some nice exhibits of companies taking the low cost way to lower CO2 output.

7. Electricity competition.  There were lots of exhibits by competitive suppliers and providers of monitoring, price comparison tools and a myriad of other things needed in a competitive retail market.  For the first time ever, I saw a TEPCO presence at one of these events, as TEPCO compares for competition in its own region and others.

New logo!  New TEPCO?  Lots of reasons to think so, actually.

Kinki Electric Power .... not to be confused with Kansai Electric Power.

Skipping Stone (consultants) were there as well.  

Ready for Fuel Cell Automobiles - Toyota to roll out model in current FY

Toyota and Honda have both announced plans to introduce hydrogen fuel-cell powered electric vehicles (FCVs).

The government wants them introduced by next year.  Toyota has said it will do so with the current year.  For more details, Toyota is scheduled to provide to update its plans at 2PM Wednesday this week.

In the meantime, the government is moving to get the regulatory environment in shape.

1.  Current regulations would prevent fuel cell electric vehicles from supplying electricity to the home.  METI has proposed a modification to permit such power supply.

2.  Nikkei reported last week that the government (METI)  is planning to support sales of the vehicles with subsidies of between 2 and 3 million per vehicle.  Without subsidies the cost would be as much as 10 million yen per vehicle.

According to Nikkei, the government hopes to bring the cost of fuel cell powered cars down to that of gas-electric hybrids over the next ... 20 years.

20 years?  It would not be surprising if the private sector auto industry has a faster long-term goal, just as it has a faster short-term goal.

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UPDATE:  Toyota held its press announcement on June 25.  Yes, the model will come out this fiscal year.  The price?  Expected to be around $70,000 (or JPY 7 million) per vehicle.  Toyota is trying to persuade the government to offer a $20,000 (JPY 2 million) subsidy to bring the net consumer price down to JPY 5 million.  That would be at least 40% less than the net JPY 7-8 million Nikkei was reporting.

That seems low enough to drive real consumer interest, to present a real challenge to the others planning models in coming years (Honda and Nissan).  And it perhaps vindicates Toyota's decision not to put a huge degree of effort into plug-in hybrids.

While Toyota seems ahead in the FCV race, US, European and other (Hyundai) manufacturers are moving forward as well.  See these articles:

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/516711/why-toyota-and-gm-are-pushing-fuel-cell-cars-to-market/

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/510416/ford-daimler-and-nissan-commit-to-fuel-cells/

FURTHER UPDATE:  On July 16, 2014, Nikkei lead story is that JX (oil company; operator of Eneos and other gasoline stands) plans 100 hydrogen fueling stations by 2018.  The locations of 41 stations have been set and others continue to be added.  Each will cost between 300 and 500 million yen, but the government plans to make available subsidies of up to 280 million yen per station, easing the cost dramatically.

Bloom Boxes Seen at Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus

I currently am a guest professor at Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus' faculty of Public Policy Management, and teach a course there every Wednesday afternoon.  I was delighted when my teaching assistant yesterday mentioned to me that Keio SFC's new Bloom Energy fuel cell generator is now finished and in operation!

Indeed, the new installation was announced this week by Keio and Bloom Energy Japan (a 50/50 JV between Bloom and Masayoshi Son's Softbank).  The English press release is available here.

Bloom boxes are a solid oxide fuel cell powered by natural gas, with over 60% efficiency (better than a gas turbine, even with co-gen).  Not a completely "green" or "low carbon" technology, but one form of distributed generation.

With high electricity prices, and deregulation/liberalization of natural gas markets, this kind of installation should grow in popularity in Japan in coming years.  Does the greater efficiency over traditional gas generation justify a higher cost?  Were there subsidies?  I do not know.

The installation generates 200kW and will provide almost all the electricity for the "Delta" building at Keio SFC.