No. 68: Is wind power generation promising in Japan? Not really (June 17, 2011)

The pacing of constructing wind power plants is decelerating in Japan. According to the Japan Wind Generation Association, the wind power plants that started to operate in 2010 have a combined generation capacity of 260,000 kW, less than the capacity of the previous year for the first time in the past three years. The accident in the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant is expected to stimulate the move for more wind power plants, but the reality is different. The new generation capacity of 2010 decreased 13% from the previous year and 35% from 2006 when the construction of wind power plants peaked. There are several reasons for the decelerated pace. The government traditionally subsidized one third of the construction cost of a wind power plant, but it discontinued the subsidy starting 2010. In addition, the bill that obliges electric power companies to purchase renewable energy was submitted to the Diet, but prospects do not look brighter.

Wind generation power companies are mostly not good in financial condition. Japan Wind Development sold its Wakayama Plant to a subsidiary of Osaka Gas. Japan New Energy Explore (JANEX) operating wind power plants in Kyushu decided to put off the plan to construct new wind power plants. Japan has a total wind generation capacity of 2,440,000 kW. The Japan Wind Generation Association projects to increase Japan’s capacity to 1,100,000 kW by 2020. Today, however, winder generation capacity is currently equivalent only to two nuclear power plants.

No. 67: Tokyo Gas participates fully in wind generation (April 26, 2011)

Motivated by the prospect for growing demand for renewable energy, Tokyo Gas decided to participate fully in wind generation, accepting the request for the allocation of new shares to a third party by Shonai Wind-Power Generation in Ibaraki Prefecture. Tokyo Gas will be the second largest shareholder of Shonai Wind-Power Generation following Hitachi Engineering & Service. The investment is estimated at several million yen and investment ration at about 30%. Tokyo Gas wishes to accumulate know-how on wind generation. Founded in 2005, Shonai Wind-Power Generation is operating 10 wind generation plants with a total output of about 16,000 kW, all of which is sold to Tohoku Power Company. A large capacity lead storage battery developed by Shin-kobe Electric Machinery, one of Hitachi’s group companies, is installed in seven of the 10 plants. The seven plants are featured by constant electricity supply because they can supplement the weakness of natural energy.

Tokyo Gas is currently operating a small-scale wind generation plant with an output of 2,000 kW and selling the electricity through the intermediary of its group companies. By investing in Shonai Wind-Power, Tokyo Gas plans to accumulate know-how on the construction and management of an energy system. The company is very branching into new business fields to develop reusable energy. It has already been marketing the home fuel cell in alliance with Panasonic, the gas hot-water system utilizing solar heat, and the photovoltaic generation system and the home fuel cell as a packaging product. In addition, it plans to start substantiative experiments of the Smart House that combines photovoltaic generation, solar water system, and fuel cell shortly.

No. 66: New way to utilize unused energy with the aid of water right (March 11, 2011)

Nippon Koei, consulting firm in the construction of energy infrastructure, will start the service to provide power without carbon dioxide emissions. The company purchases power from small-sized hydraulic plants to be constructed in the area distant from the demand center and transmits power to end users using power grids of electric power companies. It will propose this method as a new way to utilize unused energy to local governments and agricultural organizations that do not use their rights to use water dropping from great heights. It will construct new small hydraulic generators on the rivers and agricultural waterways managed by local governments and agricultural organizations and transmit power to municipal offices and agricultural pumps. Power necessary for repair and inspection will be purchased from an electric power company.

Japan is estimated to have more than 10,000 points nationwide where a small hydraulic power plant with an output of less than 1,000 kW, which does not need big facilities like dam, can be constructed. They are mostly located in the areas distant from the urban area where consumers get together. Nippon Koei plans to construct several small hydraulic power plants complete with this new service in the decade ahead.

No. 65: Recycling vehicle-mounted lithium-ion battery at home (March 3, 2011)

Asahi Kasei announced that it would develop a low-priced storage system jointly with Nissan Motor and Omron. With the spread of electric vehicles, some measures need to be taken to handle a large number of used lithium-ion batteries that will be put on the market in the future. The system that the three companies try to develop is designed to store electricity generated by the photovoltaic generation system besides storing electricity at nights when electricity rate is low. This gives momentum to the formulation of measures for the spread of electric vehicles and smart grids.

Nissan introduced its electric vehicle Leaf late last year. The battery for an EV is said to have a life between 5-10 years because of rapid and repeated charges and discharges give a large amount of load to the battery. Therefore, companies involved in the battery business are considering recycling the used batteries for household use. A vehicle-mounted lithium-ion battery is expected to be usable for another 20 years after it is demounted from the vehicle.

Asahi Kasei will develop a storage system and market it for one to two million yen in the initial stage. The battery used in this system will be replaced by a used vehicle-mounted lithium-ion battery in series, and the price of a battery will ultimately be reduced to several hundreds of thousand yen. Nissan Motor and will supply used vehicle-mounted batteries to the system by replacing old parts with new ones and changing the specifications to make them suitable for household. Omron will develop equipment that converts the DC power stored in the battery to AC power for household use and manages discharge and charge.

More than 500,000 EVs are expected sold annually in 2020, and the market of home storage system that uses used vehicle-mounted lithium-ion batteries is estimated to grow about 54 times to about 13 billion yen in 2020.

No. 64: Subsidy for the introduction of low-carbon equipment (November 25, 2010)

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will establish a new system to provide a subsidy to medium-sized companies that introduce equipment like a boiler capable of reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The subsidy is proportionate to the emissions and scheduled to be 3,000 yen per ton that is about two times as much as the price for the international transaction. A medium-sized company gets the amount equivalent to the reduction of two years when it introduces the equipment. The government wishes to promote the introduction of low-carbon equipment and stimulate domestic economy simultaneously. It projects to create the investment effect of at least 30 billion yen and the reduction of carbon dioxide of about 500,000 tons for two years.

The equipment subject to the subsidy is such low-carbon equipment as city gas boiler and heat pump that has great effect on the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. The current price of emission trading is about 1,500 yen per ton, and the government plans to set the price at 3,000 yen to stimulate investment will of medium-sized companies. If a company introduces a biomass boiler of about 10 million yen, it can get a subsidy of 1,200,000 yen because carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by 400 tons in two years. The government will aggregate the emission quotas purchased from medium-sized companies and put them together into large quotas for the sales to power companies and steelmakers.

Many large Japanese companies currently purchase emission quotas from China and East European countries, creating the problem of outflow of capital to foreign countries. Medium-sized companies account for about 13% of Japan’s total emissions, but many of them are hesitate to make an investment on environment because of heavy financial burden. The government wishes to play an interface role between big companies and medium-sized companies.

No. 63: Support business for the introduction of photovoltaic generation (November 24, 2010)

Several companies will start the support business for the introduction of photovoltaic generation. Mitsubishi UFJ Lease & Finance will start the lease business for large-scale photovoltaic generation equipment. The company will lease photovoltaic generation equipment with an output of several tens of kilowatts to help manufacturing plants introduce photovoltaic generation equipment. It wishes to increase the sales to several billions of yen in three years.

Taisei Corp. will begin construction support service of large-scale photovoltaic generation to be built in an ex-waste disposal site for local governments. The company is now accumulating know-how for selecting the most suitable construction method responding to the foundation strength and wind velocity in an ex-waste disposal site in Mie Prefecture. Although waste disposal sites usually cannot be diverted to other uses because of the legal constraints even if they are filled up, they are suitable for photovoltaic generation because they are big in area and sun-kissed. It will submit proposals of photovoltaic generation to local governments with emphasis on the cost-benefit performance.

Itochu Techno Solutions will launch the service to estimate electricity generated of photovoltaic generation equipment. The company estimates electricity generated on the basis of such factors as the amount of sunlight of the candidate site and examine the feasibility of construction projects planned by power companies. The service costs several hundreds of thousand yen per project.

Surplus power generated by photovoltaic generation equipment at homes and plants is currently purchased by power companies. The Japanese government examining the possibility of purchasing whole amount of electricity generated with a view to introducing a policy in 2012 at the earliest. The policy is expected to ask power companies to purchase sunlight energy generated for the purpose of generating electricity.

No. 62: A new biofuel comes to the Japanese market in 2013 (November 22, 2010)

A new biofuel jointly developed by BP of Great Britain and DuPont of the U.S. is scheduled to be introduced into the Japanese market in 2013. The new product is not easily mixed with water, and the existing gas stations can sell it without modifying the facilities. The two companies plan to market this product as the vehicle fuel following bioethanol. Called biobutanol, it is mainly made of sugarcane. They will provide the production know-how to companies currently producing bioethanl to expand the market worldwide. Biobutanol will be put on the U.S. market in 2012 under the brand name of Butamax, and subsequently will be put on the Japanese market in 2013.

Biobutanol produces fewer by-products in production than bioethanol, and it can shorten the production process considerably. In addition, it has higher energy density than bioethanol. The former has two thirds of energy amount per volume of gasoline, but the latter has more than 80% of energy amount per volume of gasoline. The two companies will produce butanol in Southeast or in Brazil and ship the finished products by sea. The energy amount consumed in production and transportation is small. It can satisfy the environmental standards required by the Japanese government, and it can be sold at nearly the same price as bioethanol per calorie.

Oil distributors put “bio gasoline” that contains a chemical compound of bioethanol called Ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE) on the market in 2007, and increased the number of sales bases to increase the sales volume to date. However, new capital investments are required to expand the production of ETBE. Amid the growing demand for larger production of ETBE, a new type of biofuel is expected to be in greater demand in the future.