Hello everyone. It's really nice to hear form you guys here. Last time we talked about the recovery plan implemented by solar power in Japan. There are still lots of controversy of its applicability and performance . I will keep posted if I get any new information related to their policies and actions. To be continued, let's share an interesting idea of green design of ECO TOWN. :)
Get back to the recovery plan that Miyagi prefecture proposed, it aimed to build an eco town in which all the houses would be equipped with solar panels and batteries are connected by the "SMART GRID". Its sounds very fascinating. However, how would this smart grid work? Let's take a look of the design diagram shown below:
In fact, the expected change in Japanese energy portfolio with more renewable energy will require adoption of smart grids to balance the electricity supply and demand. Japan was not the top runner in terms of smart grid introduction, but after the Great East Japan Disaster, analysts foresee acceleration of the introduction. On the other hand, most of experimental smart meter installations have been done by electric power companies that have little investing power now and this may delay the smart meter diffusion.
With the advantages that smart grids and smart meter bring, we can ideally crate a eco town to use electricity more efficiently and self-generate electricity power by renewable energies like solar panel and wind power. Let's take a look of this pic of house design:
As you can see, the house will be installed solar panels on the rooftop and wind power device around the backyard. Ideally, based on the power-generating idea, the smart grid in pylon could calculate the electricity surplus that a house has now and store them for other households use. That is, during the daytime, people usually go to work or school and may not consume electricity that much. Hence, the smart grid could store the power that those solar panels or wind power generate and use it at nighttime when people are at home. This concept unveils the sharing power idea to every green house.
Let's imagine if every house in eco town could be a small power station for self use or even offering others. It definitely will improve the energy conservation significantly. However, the concern of what the cost would be is still challengeable. Personally, I think this idea is interesting and fascinating but we have to think about the cost and space that a green house needs. It it able to be spread out in developing countries? If any of you have insights about this eco town, please share your opinions with us. I appreciate your reading and sharing. See you next time!
At first, I want to thank you for your reading and being interested in my blog. All of your comments are all significant to me. :) Today, I would like to share a news I read couple months ago about Solar Power in Japan. It has lots of insights of energy concern to be considered and discussed nowadays. We all know there was a severe earthquake and tsunami hit Japan and brought significant damage and loss this year. I was very sorry to hear that disaster happened and worried about its recovery plan and rescue. The first question came out of my mind: How should Japan do for damaged nuclear power plant? How's the electricity supply?
Since the nuclear power station crashed by the tsunami, Japan aimed to use renewable energy like solar and wind power as substitutes to change its powering support structure. A recent newspaper poll by Asahi Shimbun found 64 percent of respondents believed renewable energies such as solar and wind power would replace nuclear power in the future.
To solve the shortage of electricity problems, many companies took "Rolling Blackouts" for energy conservation. Some big companies like Toshiba, Toyota, and Nissan etc would take two days off during the work week and some of them would extend its summer vacation. However, the improved supply-demand balance requires ongoing energy conservation by industries and households especially during summer when power demand increases for air conditioning. All of us should help them save energies as well. :)
Next, according to the speech that Japan Prime Minister Naoto Kan made, Japan aims to install solar panels on the roofs of 10 million houses (It is traditional solid solar panels). To support this plan, he also mentioned: “We must nurture the two new pillars of renewable energy and energy-efficiency, in addition to the existing pillars of nuclear power and fossil fuels”. As to renewable energy, he committed to “engage in drastic technological innovation in order to increase the share of renewable energy to more than 20 percent by the 2020s”. To achieve this, as a first step, “we aim to lower the cost of solar power generation to one third of its current level by 2020 and to one sixth by 2030”.
As a result, in order to install solar powering house in the future, lower the cost of manufacturing would be a must. That's exactly the OPV's potentials in existing industry for sure. For the damaged areas like Iwate and Fukushima island, Japanese local governments are also looking at photovoltaics seriously to implement its recovery plan. This clean energy source is included in recovery plans by the three prefectures in northeast Japan that were impacted by the earthquake and tsunami most severely.
Iwate prefecture announced its long-term recovery plan this month that calls for faster adoption of renewable energies such as solar and wind power.
Miyagi prefecture also announced its recovery plan that includes the “Eco Town” project where all houses equipped with solar panels and batteries are connected by the smart grid.
Fukushima prefecture also plans to facilitate adoption of renewable energies dramatically.
It is obvious that Japan government has broached to develop its renewable energy industry especial in solar power. As a matter of fact, another big plan is to use its 20% of 540,000 hectares in unused farmland nationwide to build mega solar facilities to generate 50 million KW electricity supply that is almost equivalent to Tokyo Electric Power Company’s capacity in the summer. In essence, this plan would be initiated by Sharp Corp.
Speaking of the efficiency issue, I calculated the percentage of the panels conversion rate based on its assumption. As below: 540,000 (hec) x 20% x 10,000= 108 x 10^7(meter square). So, 5 x 10^7 KW / 108 x 10^7 = 4.6%(KW/meter square). It's a bit lower than I expected in solid panels. But on the other side, for a mass production of solar panels on the needs, bringing OPVs into the market is coming soon in the near future. :) Next time I would like to talk about a new idea about "ECO TOWN" and "SMART-GRID" design for renewable energy. Thank you for your review and see you next time.
Hello folks, It has been a while I didn't post new articles on my blog. Hope you guys would enjoy my topic at Solar OPV industry. Today I want to talk more about the applications of OPV. As I mentioned before, compared to the solid solar panels, the plastic panels are more flexible, lighter, and less costly. As a result, I concluded three major steps or I should say three progress of OPV development. At first, we could use the OPVs on "PORTABLE DEVICES" such as I-Pod, I-Pad, and cell phones.
Let's think about the I-pad case, usually we spend maybe $30 to $40 dollars on a silicone case for protecting I-pad being scratched or cracked. If, the case is not just for protection? Via developing the characteristics of OPV, we could make a plastic case with OPV cells to charge it from sun and light maybe 30% to 40% of the power storage. How would this market be? I would say the smartphones are getting more advanced with multifunctions. The following concern would be the battery issues of durability and power charging.
According to the cost issue, the manufacturing process of plastic production would approach to a low material cost and roll to roll manufacturing with mass production. The applicability of this idea would be reachable soon I expected.
Next, we could imagine that using the OPVs on "SMART FABRICS" such as bags, backpacks, tents, and awnings. In specific, plastic solar cells will be used for smart fabrics and interactive textiles applications. The properties of OPV cells that enable them to be a great candidate for power generation in wearable form are flexibility, ability to be printed on a variety of surfaces, availability in multiple colors, customizable shapes and sizes, and environmentally friendly profile - non-toxic, disposable and recyclable. For example, if we are going camping with family trip in a lake in rural areas, the smart fabric would help us to generate electricity power with any other machines being carried. Even your travel bags could be used to charge your lighting appliances or radio gears.
However, what's the other applications you come up with? Any innovative ideas so far? In a long term development, the third application will be BIPV(Building Integrated Photovoltaics). Most of building are using glasses for the architecture covering system. What's the function of it? Ambient lighting purpose or decoration? What if we put so-called "Power Windows" on the building and use them to generate power for electricity needs? Speaking of its applicability, plastic solar cells are well suited for BIPV applications because of their flexibility, easy installation, better performance in low and indirect lights, and aesthetic value for architects. The biggest advantage is the low cost of electricity generation, at 20% of the cost of traditional solar cells, which puts them on par with fossil fuels. Direct embedding into building materials during manufacturing and lightweight and flexibility further reduces the installation cost.
After the preliminary introduce of OPV, I believe you guys must have a basic understanding about plastic solar panels now. :) Let's share your ideas with me. If you have any innovative thoughts no matter in marketing, financing, manufacturing in solar industry or read any related articles please share with your insights with me. I will introduce the market of OPV and some news in solar industry to every of you in next posting. Thank you for reading my blog and hope you guys like it. See you next time :)
