No. 68: Constructing mega solar plants on the water surface of lakes and ponds (November 17, 2012)

Technology:

West Holdings, one of Japan’s leading solar panel producers, will construct mega solar plants on the water surface of lakes and ponds in alliance with LSIS that is a Korean company specializing in equipment related to power generation. The company will import LSIS’s equipment and float waterproof generation facilities on water surface. It plans to construct 10 mega solar plants with a total generation capacity of 20,000 kW in the initial year. The competition to purchase lands suitable for power generation by renewable energy has been intensifying with the introduction of the system to purchase power generated by renewable energy in July this year, and West Holdings plans to focus on water surface left unutilized.

In the initial stage, the company will construct generation facilities with a generation capacity of 1,000-2,000 kW in the regulation pond of an industrial complex in the Tokyo metropolitan area and in the pond in a park with a water surface area of 118,000 square meters in Osaka. They are scheduled to go into operation next year. The advantage of constructing a mega solar on the water surface is that the temperature of the panels installed on the water surface hardly increases, making it possible to increase output. At the same time, photovoltaic panels shut sunlight to avoid the plague of blue-green algae.  

 

A mega solar plant constructed in an ex-salt field in Shikoku 

by Japan Asia Group 

No. 67: Japanese biogas generation technology goes to Southeast Asia (November 16, 2012)

Business trend:

Kubota will start the biogas generation business in Southeast Asia in alliance with palm oil producers in Malaysia and Indonesia. The company will build plants to generate electricity using methane gas recovered from the effluent and joint companies will sell electricity. Because Malaysia and Indonesia introduced an electricity purchase system, Kubota tries to get orders with the emphasis on its technological advantage. Kubota’s system is called the membrane methane fermentation system. Kubota will sell this system with a generator.

With the help of its original membrane technology, the system can recover methane gas effectively to increase the output by 20%. It is estimated that an average palm oil plant can get a revenue about 130 million yen per year by selling electricity. Kubota already secured an order of 300 million yen for a biogas generation plant from Malaysia for the first time. Malaysia and Indonesia combined have more than 1,000 palm oil producers.  

 

Kubota’s membrane methane fermentation system

No. 66: Present status of ocean current power generation (November 10, 2012)

Technology:

In European Marine Energy Center located offshore of Orkney Islands of Scotland, Kawasaki Heavy plans to conduct substantiative experiments of ocean current power generation in 2014. Kawasaki will install equipment on the seabed 50 meters below the surface of the sea. Propellers 18 meters in diameter each rotate by dint of ocean current to generate electricity, and the direction of propellers will be automatically controlled responding to come and go of the tide. Special treatment will be given to the propellers to avoid malfunction due to adhesion of marine organisms. The company is confident that the technology it has accumulated in posture control and corrosion protection will be of great help to the development of ocean current power generation that offers constant generation.

Japan has the world sixth largest country in terms of the area of territorial waters and excusive economic zone (EEZ). Because it has lots of potential for utilizing ocean energy, the Ministry of the Environment plans to increase the generation capacity of ocean energy to 1,500,000 kW in 2030. Some estimate that Japan’s total wave energy amount to 36 million kW that is equivalent to the generation capacity of more than 30 nuclear power plants. The critical point is how to collect generated electricity.

A research team made up of researchers from the University of Tokyo, IHI, Toshiba, and Mitsui Global Strategic Studies Institute is developing an underwater floating ocean current generator that generates electricity by dint of the black current. Blades 40 meters in diameter each of a generator floating in 50 meters below the surface of the sea level rotate and generate facing the black current. Ken Takagi of the University of Tokyo says “An ocean current always flows to the same direction, allowing for stable generation.”

Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding is developing a wave power generator to make the best use of waves that come to and go from Japan of a wide range of frequencies. It will generate electricity by dint of up-and-down motions of small buoys floating on the surface of the sea. The company plans to commercialize the generator toward 2016.  

An image of the tidal wave generator being 

developed by Kawasaki Heavy 

No. 65: Present status of offshore wind generation (October 9, 2012)

Technology:

Experiments of offshore wind generation are under way in several locations. Offshore wind turbines being constructed under the initiative of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) offshore of Chiba Prefecture will start operation in October. Local governments are developing projects to foster offshore wind generation in alliance with universities and companies. Kyushu University is operating its self-developed “wind lens turbine” that has a cover around the blades. The original turbine installed on a hexagon base collects wind and makes the wind velocity 1.5 times stronger.

Unlike in Europe, the floating wind farm anchored in the seabed with chain is dominant in Japan because water depth is mostly over 50 m off Japan. The Ministry of Environment plans to increase the output by offshore wind generation 270 times from the current 30,000 kW to 8,030,000 kW that is equivalent to the output of eight nuclear power plants by 2030. Developing the technology of the floating wind farm is critical to achieve this ambitious target.

The crucial issue of offshore wind generation is high construction cost because it costs more than three times than a wind generation plant on land. Some offshore wind generation projects use concrete instead of steel for part of the floating body to reduce construction cost. Kyushu University is planning to connect three triangular floating bodies instead of using one hexagon body to reduce construction cost, and install solar batteries to achieve a total output of 3,000 kW.

The purchase price of power by wind generation is fixed at 23.1 yen whether or not it is generated offshore or on land.    

 The floating offshore wind generation system 

developed by Kyushu University

No. 64: Small hydraulic generation market grows more active (September 22, 2012)

Business trend:

The small hydraulic generation is defined as the hydraulic generation with a capacity of less than 1,000 kW. It is suitable for generation using a brook or an agricultural irrigation channel. It is a dispersed power system with a relatively stable output. Seabell International is actively expanding business in alliance with Osaka Gas. The company plans to increase sales quantity six times by offering a lease system without front-end payment. Farmers collaborate with Energy Bank Japan, a subsidiary of Osaka Gas, to conclude a contract with a leasing company. They pay the lease fee with revenue from electric power selling, and split the balance.

Nippon Koei has participated in the small hydraulic generation market with its medium-sized generators that have a capacity of 400 kW, though it specializes in large-sized generators with a capacity between 2,000 and 5,000 kW. With the introduction of the system to purchase power generated by renewable energy, power generators can sell power to electric power companies for 20 years. The selling price of power generated by hydraulic generation with a capacity less than 200 kW is set at 35.7 yen per kW, that with a capacity between 200 and 1,000 kW is set at 30.45 yen per kW, and that with a capacity between 1,000 and 30,000 kW is set at 25.2 yen per kW.  

Small Hydro Stream by Seabell

No. 63: Wind power generation business grows brisk (September 15, 2012)

Business trend:



Windmills along the seacoast

Summit Wind Power plans to build another six wind generation facilities in Kashima of Ibaraki Prefecture. The six facilities will start operation with a combined capacity of 18,000 kW in 2016. The investment will be 4-5 billion yen. With the new facilities, the company will increase its generation capacity 50% to 54,000 kW, equivalent to power consumption of about 30,000 households. Summit Wind Power is a group company of Summit Energy wholly owned by Sumitomo Corp.

Summit Wind Power is now operating 10 windmills, each of which has a generation capacity of 2,000 kW, in the Kashima coast industrial area. The company will have a meeting with residents to explain its plan and show a picture of the plan. With the introduction of the special law that asks electric power companies to purchase renewable energy, wind power generation business is growing active. Summit Wind Power will sell generated power to Tokyo Electric Power Company.  

  

 Kashima coastal industrial area in Ibaraki Prefecture

No. 62: Six companies ally to participate in the off-shore wind generation business (September 5, 2012)

Business trend:

Six companies will form an alliance and enter the off-shore wind generation business with a total investment of 120 billion yen. They are Hitachi Zosen, Toshiba, JFE Steel, Sumitomo Electric, Toa Corp., and Toyo Construction. Japan Weather Association will joint the alliance for the survey on air flow rate. They will invest 120 billion yen over a decade to construct an off-shore wind generation plant with a capacity of 300,000 kW. Hitachi Zosen will build braces, Toshiba will construct windmills, and Sumitomo Electric will lay down marine cables.

In the initial stage, they will adopt the embedded off-shore generation system, and later advance to the floating off-shore generation system. With the support from the government, they will build a pilot plant with a capacity of 7,000 kW in several locations to study feasibility and deterioration by salt damage in 2015 for the selection of the construction area. The full-scale operation of the new plant is scheduled for 2020. A wind generator has a total of 20,000 parts as an automobile, promoting wind generation will create employment. The generation cost of an embedded off-shore wind generation is estimated at between 9.4 yen and 23.1 yen, land wind generation between 9.9 yen and 17.3 yen, and large-scale photovoltaic generation between 30.1 yen and 45.8 yen in Japan. 

An alliance of six companies starts to 

spread wind generation in Japan.