Samsung SDI is to provide 1MWh of lithium-ion batteries to a 1MW Edison Power solar PV farm on Kyushu island in Japan’s Kagoshima prefecture.
The South Korean battery maker will initially supply 1MWh to the Kyushu PV plant and install more batteries at 20 PV farms, which Edison Power aims to built in various places like Hokkaido and Kyushu over the next five years. The battery costs around ¥100,000 ($971) per kWh.
The batteries are designed to stabilise and control the intermittent power generation from the plant.
The construction of the Kyushu plant will start in the beginning of 2015. The Kagoshima prefecture is the site of several solar power projects, including Japan’s largest PV plant, a 70MW installation by Kyocera.
Tokyo-based Edison Power provides development services for solar power plants as well as energy management systems and distribution of large-scale lithium-ion batteries. The company opened its own 6ha large-capacity lithium-ion batteries factory in January near Tokyo.