The week in clean energy and carbon: Japan’s energy storage push

By Bloomberg New Energy Finance on 11 July 2012

That Japan launched its generous feed-in tariff scheme for solar, wind, biomass and geothermal from 1 July 2012 is well-known. It made another announcement last week on energy-storage batteries that could place it in an altogether different league in the clean energy industry.

The storage market would grow to ¥20 trillion ($US250 billion) by 2020 and Japan could take 50 per cent of the market, a report from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said. Its share last year was 18 per cent of the ¥5.2 trillion market.

Storage batteries are used in electric cars, and also enable the delayed consumption of renewable electricity. A solar plant with storage for instance would make possible consumption of solar power at night when there is no sun.

“If we keep promoting renewables, the stability of power systems may be at risk and surplus power may be wasted. Storage batteries are one solution,” the ministry said. It also set targets for efficiency improvements and for cost declines in the installation of batteries.