Japan Solar Energy Soars, But Grid Needs to Catch Up

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2013/08/130814-japan-solar-energy-incentive/

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Japan Solar Energy Soars, But Grid Needs to Catch Up[/font]

Yvonne Chang in Tokyo
For National Geographic
Published August 14, 2013

[font size=3]Hokkaido, Japan's second largest and northernmost island, is known for its beautiful wild nature, delicious seafood, and fresh produce. Now another specialty is taking root: Large-scale megasolar power plants that take advantage of the island's unique geography.

A new renewable energy incentive program has Japan on track to become the world's leading market for solar energy, leaping past China and Germany, with Hokkaido at the forefront of the sun power rush. In a densely populated nation hungry for alternative energy, Hokkaido is an obvious choice to host projects, because of the availability of relatively large patches of inexpensive land. Unused industrial park areas, idle land inside a motor race circuit, a former horse ranch—all are being converted to solar farms. (See related, "Pictures: A New Hub for Solar Tech Blooms in Japan.&quot

But there's a problem with this boom in Japan's north. Although one-quarter of the largest solar projects approved under Japan's new renewables policy are located in Hokkaido, the island accounts for less than 3 percent of the nation's electricity demand. Experts say Japan will need to act quickly to make sure the power generated in Hokkaido flows to where it is needed. And that means modernizing a grid that currently doesn't have capacity for all the projects proposed, installing a giant battery—planned to be the world's largest—to store power when the sun isn't shining, and ensuring connections so power can flow across the island nation. (See related, "In Japan, Solar Panels Aid in Tsunami Rebuilding.&quot

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[cprise]

1. With all of that mountainous terrain

I wonder what kind of potential Japan has for expanded hydropower storage.

[Yo_Mama]

2. Japan already has a lot of pumped storage plants. About 25% of world capacity

The problem is going to be getting power from Hokkaido to those plants.

Japan is unique among developed nations in that it has a split grid. The northern grid runs at 50 herz and the southern at 60 herz.


There are a few frequency conversion points that can pass voltage between the two systems, but it's low capacity. There is also poor interconnectivity between the utility regions, which further complicates matters.

So as it currently goes, just about none of the power can be passed down to the south.


The reason Japan has so much pumped storage is that it always ran its power plants so as to maximize their efficiency, and pumped storage was created to take the overflow and redispatch it during peak periods. So in some ways Japan is almost uniquely "ready" for renewables.

However they are going to have to change the grid quite a bit to pass that power around where it is needed.

Older IEEE article with more detail:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/the-smarter-grid/why-japans-fragmented-grid-cant-cope

Pumped hydro:
http://people.duke.edu/~cy42/PHS.pdf

[pscot]

4. I used to credit the Japanese with unusual insight

But they're even more screwed up than we are.

[cprise]

5. Thanks. Germany is running new HVDC lines

to get its wind power into the south.

It seems to me that running HVDC out of Hokkaido would be equally convertible to either 50 or 60Hz.

[Yo_Mama]

6. Yes, I am sure that is what they'll do

But hopefully a lot faster than Germany is managing to do it!!

They'll also have to rework their whole utility system - it needs to be a lot more integrated.

[kristopher]

3. One of their advantages

...is the amount of pumped hydro storage they already have installed. They have more than anyone else in the world with a bit over 25GW of capacity. In March of this year they input about 540GWh into the PHS system.