Japanese Battery Trial Seeks To Transform How Grids Work: Energy

[Yo_Mama]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-08-06/japanese-battery-trial-seeks-to-transform-how-grids-work-energy.html

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is investing 20 billion yen ($203 million) on a Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. (5802) device to be used by Hokkaido island’s utility to store excess solar and wind power, stabilizing flows to consumers.

Since the earthquake in 2011, Japan has redoubled work to upgrade power systems and spur exports that can revitalize the economy. The Sumitomo device is meant to give Japan the kind of market leadership it had in the 1970s with cheap calculators made by Casio Computer Co. (6952) and this century with Toyota Motor Corp. (7203)’s fuel-saving hybrid cars.

This is not a new technology, as is noted later in the article. But it is a trial of an implementation of an older technology which may have more use now.

I have, with some surprise, come to the conclusion that Japan rather than Germany will be the first industrial country to achieve a strong penetration of wind/solar into the grid, and in part it's because Japan's grid is so remarkably inefficient. Its energy costs are already high, the need to import energy is a huge problem, and the relatively high number of pumped storage plants already in existence help with storage issues.

Japan was also working hard on fuel cell systems long before 3/11, and they have made progress:
http://www.earthtoys.com/emagazine.php?issue_number=08.06.01&article=injapan

Bloom is currently involved in a cooperative venture in Japan to penetrate the non-residential market:
http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/25071