Panasonic combines fuel cells, batteries, PV to power manufacturing facility in Japan

• Japan's Panasonic claims its new pilot solar-plus-hydrogen facility notes the initial effort to create a factory powered by 100% renewables, via the full-scale use hydrogen.

Japanese electronic devices producer Panasonic has actually commissioned a pilot hydrogen plant combining photovoltaics with storage as well as fuel cells at its fuel cell factory in Kusatsu, Shiga Prefecture, in central Japan.

The system has a power result of 1.07 MW, with 570 kW are supplied by the solar array as well as 495 kW by Panasonic's own fuel cell systems. It also counts on lithium-ion batteries with a combined storage space capacity of 1.1 MWh. The Kusatsu site has a peak demand of around 680 kW and also an annual power demand of around 2.7 GWh.

The pilot facility occupies a surface of around 6,000 square meters. It is purportedly the globe's very first effort to develop a factory powered by 100% renewables with the full-scale use of hydrogen.

" Through this demonstrator, we will certainly get know-how and also data related to energy administration, including the procedure of pure hydrogen fuel cells," the producer claimed. "The created power will cover all the electricity needed by the manufacturing department of the fuel cell manufacturing facility in the Kusatsu base."

The facility was constructed with 99 Panasonic H2 Kibou fuel cell systems with capacities of 5 kW each. The system deals with pure hydrogen at a density of more than 99.97%, and achieves electrical performance of 56%. It measures 834 mm × 417 mm × 1,766 mm and weighs 205 kg, including the design panel.

The fuel cell generator can be made use of with an operating temperature between -10 C as well as 40 C, at altitudes not going beyond 500 meters. Throughout power outages, it is able to produce electricity as well as to use up to 2.5 kW of its capacity for a minimum of 120 hrs.