*This is a machine-translated text of the original article.

In April of this year, Kyocera Corporation announced that it would begin demonstration experiments of renewable energy “self-consignment” in Yasu City, Shiga Prefecture (the Kansai region of Honshu), using a storage battery for the first time in Japan.

Self-consigned transmission is a system in which electric power generated by a company at its own premises is supplied to its other premises using a power grid operated by a public utility.

In this demonstration, approximately 150 kilowatts of Kyocera’s photovoltaic power generation system was installed on the site of 2,000 square meters owned by Yasu City.

Renewable energy generated by the system will be supplied to the Kyocera Shiga-Yasu Plant, about 2 kilometers away, through the transmission and distribution network of Kansai Electric Power.

In the field trials of self-consignment, we utilized stationary lithium-ion batteries, the first in Japan (*).

By leveling the capacity of self-consigned power supply through stable power supply and applying the control technology of distributed storage batteries cultivated through the past VPP (Virtual Power Plant)-related demonstration experiments, the company aims to supply renewable power that reduces the burden on the grid.

In addition, the storage batteries installed at the power station will be operated independently in the event of a disaster or other wide-area power outage, and charging services will be provided to local residents so that the batteries can be used to mitigate disasters in the city.

The Kyocera Group has set long-term environmental targets for reducing greenhouse gases emitted in fiscal 2030 by 30% compared to fiscal 2013 levels and for renewable energy use by 10 times compared to fiscal 2013 levels, and the entire Group is promoting activities to achieve these targets.

Through this demonstration, Kyocera aims to establish a business model for self-consignment, which is expected to grow in demand in the future, and it says that Kyocera will contribute to the establishment of a stable and appropriate energy supply-demand structure and the formation of a decarbonized society for the realization of renewable energy’s mainstay power supply, which is currently being promoted in Japan.

(*) In a self-consigned test conducted in Japan (investigated by Kyocera as of January 28, 2020)

Original Text: https://ampmedia.jp/2020/01/28/kyosera/