Is the "photovoltaic + energy storage" economy combining new energy and disaster prevention?

   After the disaster, solar power generation is an effective means of emergency power generation when the power and traffic networks are cut off between the disaster area and the outside world.But solar equipment and setup require a huge cost, so while solar power can play a big role in a disaster, few people are willing to take on high prices for "temporary need."

０１  Japanese subsidies for combining disaster prevention and new energy import

    Japan is a country with frequent natural disasters, and the reality of "multiple disasters" has created Japan's strong awareness of disaster prevention.In solving the problem of insufficient power after the disaster, Japan has set up solar power generation and energy storage equipment to achieve the effect of "peacetime power storage and disaster use".

    In order to promote the popularization of new energy and combine it with disaster prevention, Japan's Environment Department has launched the "independent and decentralized energy equipment introduction and promotion cause of regional disaster prevention and reduction and low carbonization".The cause is supported by public and personal buildings that can serve as shelters during the disaster.These buildings can provide up to 75% of installation costs when introducing and updating equipment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide power in the event of a disaster.

    Qunuma Prefecture, Japan, is a natural disaster-prone region.There are two active volcanoes nearby, potentially threatened by eruptions and wildfires.

    The local West Wife's Wellbeing Hospital is a local public hospital.The service covers nearly 90 percent of the residents in our county and has a role for local medical services.As a public hospital, the West Wife Welfare Hospital has a large energy-related equipment, and local medical services will be greatly affected if the hospital goes out after the disaster.To prepare for disaster power failure, the hospital introduced an independent power supply and energy storage equipment composed of 368.5kW capacity solar power equipment and a capacity of 416kWh battery, and an air conditioning equipment with 15 systems.The project, which cost about 660 million yen, eventually received a Japanese government grant of about 45,000 yen.

Photovoltaic + energy storage equipment in the West Wife Welfare Hospital

    Updating energy equipment also significantly cuts hospital operating costs.After the equipment update, the hospital's electricity bill was reduced to 18 million yen a year from about 29 million yen before.When the weather is fine, the hospital's solar power can meet the hospital's electricity and fill the hospital batteries in a morning.The hospital can still operate as usual during a local power outage.

    Not only the hospitals, but also the health and welfare centers, middle schools, government offices and venues in our county also replaced the old functional equipment used for more than 20 years, and introduced new solar power generation, energy storage and other related equipment.

A facility in my Wife County has been replaced as a refuge secondary school gymnasium with more energy efficient LED lighting

    When the 19th typhoon Hybeth hit his wife county in 2019, landslides and mudslides caused by heavy rainfall damaged many homes and the national roads were washed away.The local secondary school serves as a shelter for a large number of residents who came to take shelter.But the power failure caused by the typhoon forced shelter work without lighting, and not charging mobile phones gradually led to difficult local contact with the outside world, causing great inconvenience to shelter residents.This time, while importing solar power equipment and energy storage equipment, the school also introduced LED lighting to reduce energy consumption after the disaster power outage, which is available for 60 mobile phones.

０２  Cost-effectiveness of the "photovoltaic + energy storage" model

    Solar power and energy storage systems do not seem economical in traditional cost-effective calculations, but deployment of solar power and energy storage systems is actually a robust investment and lowest cost solution.That is, using solar power + energy storage projects to avoid power outages can increase economic value.

    The year 2017 was the largest weather-related economic loss in U. S. history, with cumulative losses of more than $300 billion.That same year also set the record for the longest power outage ever in the United States.Combined with the decline in productivity caused by the power failure, a series of hidden losses after the disaster can not even be estimated.Lack of electricity is the main root cause of economic losses in the disaster areas.While diesel generators after disasters, equipment failures and fuel shortages could prevent stable power supplies from the disaster area.Therefore, areas with frequent disasters need more resilient backup power systems.

In 2017, Hurricane Harvey soaked in Houston

    In 2018, the researchers in the United States studied the economic benefits of "photovoltaic + energy storage" as a backup power system, and simulated the effect of a primary school and installing solar and energy storage projects in a large power building, respectively.

    This study simulates solar power and energy storage systems powering critical loads during a two-hour power outage.The researchers estimated the economics of each building type of solar and energy storage system based on the business losses caused by utility customers, or the expected cost data required to be responsible.

    The results show that a conservative solar + cell energy storage deployment is economical for primary schools even before considering the cost of avoiding power cuts.If you avoid the impact of power grid interruption, after increasing the scale of its best solar power system by 20% and more than 13 times increase the capacity of the energy storage system, in addition to continuing to supply power during the power failure, the larger solar power + energy storage system can also save schools more power bills, more than twice the system cost.

    For large office buildings, solar power systems and energy storage systems are less economical without considering power cuts.But by considering the cost of avoiding power cuts, combining the value of the avoided power loss with electricity savings, net gains increased by more than $170,000 over 20 years.

Conclusion

    The photovoltaic power generation system used with the battery energy storage system is an alternative that can provide a reliable, economical and efficient backup power supply.Although costs in systems have declined in recent years, solar + energy storage projects are mainly used to improve utility efficiency.Using emergency backup power relying on solar power is important in the case of power ages or natural disasters.

    At present, China is vigorously promoting the development of the photovoltaic industry.However, the policy of combining photovoltaic power generation with energy storage, even adding disaster prevention elements, and providing economic subsidies for relevant economic subsidies is not sufficient.Japan's idea of combining new energy with disaster prevention may be of reference significance to China's future policies of new energy to a certain extent.If the promotion of new energy is promoted in some areas with high incidence of disasters according to local conditions, it can even have additional economic benefits of 1 + 1> 3 such as "poverty alleviation, environmental protection and disaster prevention".