Panasonic To Support Tokai University's Solar Car Team

Published on 28 August 2011   Comments (Be the first)

by Raymond J. Scheicher

(OfficialWire)

OSAKA (JAPAN)
OfficialWire News Bureau

Panasonic Corp has announced its sponsorship of Tokai University’s solar car team, the defending champion for the 2011 World Solar Challenge (WSC) in Australia, one of the largest solar-powered car races in the world.

Under the sponsorship agreement, Panasonic will supply the Japanese university team with its HIT solar cells boasting the world’s highest level of energy conversion rate, as well as high-capacity lithium-ion batteries.

The solar car race, first held in 1987, sees many teams from universities, corporations and other groups around the world competing to race 3,021 km through central Australia from Darwin in the north to Adelaide in the south. The Tokai University team, who won the last race held in 2009 with its solar car using Panasonic lithium-ion battery cells to store its solar generated power, will look for its second straight win at 2011 WSC, which will be held from Oct 16 to 23.

Panasonic HIT solar cells are hybrids of single crystalline silicon surrounded by ultra-thin amorphous silicon layers. With high conversion efficiency, excellent temperature performance and high energy output per unit area, the cells are ideal for obtaining maximum power within a limited space, such as the rooftops of private homes. HIT cells are also suited for solar cars competing in the WSC because the WSC regulations limit the total area of solar cells installed on the body.

The batteries Panasonic is providing are cylindrical 18650-type (18 mm diameter, 65 mm length) high-capacity lithium-ion battery cells having the company’s proprietary nickel-based positive electrode. They will be mounted in arrays within a storage battery module. Featuring the industry’s highest level of energy density, the battery cell is light, high capacity and long-lasting and enables making battery module lighter.

As the WSC also limits the weight of the rechargeable battery module mounted on the solar car, the high capacity and lightweight Panasonic battery cells are favored by many contenders. This year, Panasonic will provide the high-capacity lithium-ion battery cells to five other solar car teams including Delft University of Technology and University of Twente from the Netherlands, Stanford University and University of California from the U.S.A., and Nanyang Technological University from Singapore.

By providing energy solutions to create electricity from sunlight and store excess power using a combination of its high-efficiency HIT solar cells and high-capacity lithium-ion batteries, Panasonic will support the students’ challenge in the solar car race that will be run under harsh weather conditions.

Raymond J. Scheicher is a journalist, author and genealogist. History research, news, and crimes his prime aims. With 11 years media experience and his other activities Raymond has been able travel throughout Europe and many parts of Asia. He has also produced his own International radio program for many years. Raymond's first book published just a few years ago was titled When I was a Lad and Later about the life of Mr. & Mrs. Norman D’Angri descendants of Natale Spiridion Giorgio D’Angri arrived to Australia 1852. He was a miner in Eureka stockade at Ballarat were he struck the large amount of gold with his group of miners. Raymond is currently writing another book about D’Angri family. For more information visit rjsworldmedia.com.

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Japan Solar Shipments May Jump 10-Fold, Industry Group Says - Bloomberg

Japanese domestic shipments of solar panels may increase by as much as 10 times in “a fairly short period” after the government approved renewable energy subsidies, a solar industry group’s chairman said.

“Legislation passed today will secure purchase of power generated by solar panels for a long time period,” Mikio Katayama, chairman of the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association, told reporters in Tokyo today. “That will help a rapid expansion of industry-use and utility-use solar systems.”

The legislation allows for a “feed-in tariff” or incentives that guarantee above-market rates for producers of wind, solar and geothermal energy. The subsidies are part of government efforts to cut Japan’s reliance on atomic energy after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami led to radiation leaks from a nuclear power plant.

Domestic solar battery shipments are about 1 gigawatt a year in Japan, compared with 8 gigawatts in Germany, said Katayama, who is also the president of Sharp Corp., Japan’s biggest maker of photovoltaic cells.

Panel shipments gained 31 percent from a year earlier to 258.6 megawatts in the three months ended June, according to the association. Residential-use systems accounted for about 87 percent of the shipments during the quarter.

When implemented in Germany and Spain, feed-in tariffs boosted installations of solar panels.

Renewable energy, including solar accounted for 2.9 percent of Japan’s power generation in 2010, compared with 15 percent in Germany, according to the International Energy Agency.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mariko Yasu in Tokyo at myasu@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Young-Sam Cho at ycho2@bloomberg.net.

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Solar companies get boost from Japan - BusinessWeek

NEW YORK

Solar panel makers could get a lift this year thanks to new renewable energy laws in Japan, Jefferies & Co. said Friday.

A renewable energy bill will include a feed-in tariff that pays homeowners for the power they generate from solar panels, analyst Jesse Pichel said. The bill, which will become effective on July 1, 2012, could increase solar installations in the country more than five-fold by 2020, Pichel said.

"Although economic details are pending, we believe solar will be the largest beneficiary of the bill given Japan's history as the first country to adopt solar as a viable energy source," Pichel said.

Japan this summer said that the risks of nuclear energy were clearly too high after a March 11 earthquake and tsunami touched off leaks, explosions and meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant northeast of Tokyo.

National leader said that renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and biomass should eventually replace nuclear as a new pillar of energy supply.

Japanese companies such as Kyocera Corp. and Sharp Corp. are expected to benefit, as well as companies that do a lot of business in the country such as Suntech Power Holdings Co. and Canadian Solar Inc. In addition, the new Japanese incentives will tighten global supplies for solar panels and likely raise prices for the entire industry, Pichel said.

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Three firms planning massive solar power complex in Aichi

Mitsui Chemicals Inc., Toshiba Corp. and Mitsui & Co. plan to jointly build a 50,000-kw solar power plant that would be the biggest in Japan, sources said Saturday.

They intend to construct the ¥20 billion solar facility on 800,000 sq. meters of land owned by Mitsui Chemicals in Tahara, Aichi Prefecture, and sell electricity to Chubu Electric Power Co. from 2013, the sources said.

Roughly 90 percent of the investment is expected to be funded by low-cost loans the companies will seek from the government-affiliated Development Bank of Japan, the sources said.

The companies have decided to go ahead with the project because the Diet is set to approve a bill obliging utilities to buy renewable energy, including solar power, from third parties.

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Solar plant cleans Kawasaki image

KAWASAKI — Few people may realize there is a giant solar power plant in the heart of the Tokyo metropolis, where available open land is scarce.

But in Kawasaki, Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s 11-hectare Ukishima plant, with its 37,926 solar panels, is proving the exception.

The rent-free plant sits atop a landfill adjacent to Tokyo's Haneda airport and the Tama River estuary, thus the site is not near any sun-blocking high-rises.

"People from about 20 municipal governments came over here to see our plant in the past month," said Iwao Shibayama, a senior official in charge of renewable energy in the Kawasaki Municipal Government.

The Ukishima plant, sitting over Kawasaki's incinerated refuse, started operations Aug. 10 in a joint project of the city and Tepco, which will also run the nearby 23-hectare solar power plant on man-made Ogishima Island.

The two plants combined generate 20,000 kw and form one of the largest sources of solar power nationwide.

As providers of renewable energy, huge solar plants are generating keen interest amid the crisis at Tepco's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant and political calls to lessen the nation's dependence on atomic energy, which before the March 11 disasters accounted for some 30 percent of Japan's electricity.

The nation's 10 power utilities also see construction of mega solar plants as part of their long-term goal. They hope to build them at 30 sites, including Ukishima, and generate a combined 140,000 kw by fiscal 2020.

The Ukishima plant is lucky in many ways.

"There are a number of conditions regarding how this plant is used, but we've taken advantage of the drawbacks," Shibayama said, adding the site is ideal for solar power.

Restrictions on high-rise construction around Haneda airport limited Kawasaki's growth options, but the site turned out to become a shadow-free environment.

Kawasaki also can't build structures on the landfill for 20 years until it finishes purifying the incinerated refuse that makes up the soil. That's why the city agreed three years ago to let Tepco build and operate the Ukishima plant for free. The city meanwhile receives fixed-asset taxes from Tepco, Shibayama said.

A prime goal of hosting the solar plant is to improve the city's smokestack image, he said.

"Kawasaki was once infamous for industrial pollution, and some people still have that image," he continued. "With this solar power project, we have an invisible but enormous attribute."

The location is also convenient for Tepco. The utility doesn't need to lay down a new power grid to send electricity generated at Ukishima, as there is already one set up for factories on other parts of the island.

But experts are split on whether enormous solar power plants will take root in a big way.

"Mega solar power generation is not yet very efficient," said Shinichiro Takiguchi, executive senior researcher at the Japan Research Institute.

If plant locations are remote and inexpensive, they may be far from existing high-voltage electric transmission lines. Building new lines would be an additional cost for utilities, he said.

Solar panels and related components also are highly expensive, adding to operating costs, he added.

Experts estimate that a home solar power system would cost ¥40 per kwh, against ¥15 to ¥20 per kwh in the case of wind power, biomass, large-scale hydrogen-generated electricity or geothermal heat.

Takiguchi said he wants to see how solar power prices are set using the feed-in tariff bill that is expected to clear the Diet next week.

"The government has to choose whether it sets lower prices to support industries (that consume electricity) or higher prices to develop renewable energy businesses," he said.

Huge solar power plants are also catching the attention of other industries.

Trading house Mitsui & Co. plans to set up a fund with Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. to build more than 10 big plants nationwide, each capable of generating 1,000 to 2,000 kw.

Masayoshi Son, president of the Softbank Corp. telecommunications group, plans to set up more than 10 huge solar generators across the nation in cooperation with local governments.

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