Japan’s IHI Corporation has unveiled plans to launch a lithium battery storage project in the country’s Fukushima Prefecture.
IHI said the 500kW, 2.5MWh storage facility, incorporating LG Chem Li-ion battery racks, will be developed by US-based subsidiary IHI Energy Storage.
IHI said the system will be “co-located with a larger facility” developed by the IHI Corporation as part of a “larger off-grid resiliency project”— in the region where the Fukushima nuclear plant was destroyed following an earthquake and tsunami six years ago.
IHI said the storage system is expected to be operational by 2018 and “is intended to alleviate continued grid challenges”. The system will also be used to “accelerate” development of renewable energy resources including solar power (PV) systems.
“The overall project is designed to create an independently-sustainable power system by utilising a variety of installed technologies including on-site hydrogen generation, PV systems, and battery storage to reduce CO2 emissions while providing reliable power,” IHI said.
The managing director of IHI Energy Storage Toshiaki Nishio said the facility “will change the landscape of generation and consumption in the region, creating an independent and resilient local grid”.
