The Japanese government backs large-scale storage to boost solar and help balance the grid.

credit photo NKG

At first, Japan's push into energy storage seems odd. Why is a country awash with underused pumped hydro energy storage (44 projects and growing, providing almost 29 gigawatts) now looking to invest heavily in grid-scale batteries -- particularly when the major use for pumped hydro is to service the currently slumbering nuclear fleet?

We were alerted to Japan's enthusiasm for large-scale battery deployment when Kyushu Electric Power and Tohoku Electric Power announced they are receiving significant government subsidies in order to install large batteries to "verify the improvement of supply-demand balance with large-capacity power storage systems."

At 300 megawatt-hours, the Kyushu project is particularly impressive. The company says it wants to test out the battery's ability to compete with pumped hydro in terms of capacity. Kyushu also says that it is interested in testing the battery system for controlling the voltage of a power grid.

The main reason for bigger batteries is to integrate more renewable energy. Kyushu is responsible for the grid in an area with plenty of potential for solar -- too much, in fact, according to spokesperson Daishin Kuramoto in an interview with Bloomberg.

Kyushu announced a year ago that 5,000 solar projects with a combined capacity of 1,400 megawatts had been canceled because the grid could not cope with them. The reason for the timing of the announcement was that, after a change in legislation, utilities were now able to force renewable suppliers to reduce their output, without having to compensate them.

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