Featured in Racing towards high performance – 06-2019

Virtual certainty

With the excitement of its subsidy-driven renewables boom now firmly in the past, and the full liberalization of its electric power market looming on the horizon, Japan has become a hotbed for virtual power plant (VPP) development. A number of companies have launched demonstration projects in recent years, backed by the Japanese government’s Sustainable Open Innovation Initiative (SII).

By

Brian Publicover

04 Jun 2019

Image: Stern

VPPs aggregate and control small, distributed generation sources, such as battery-backed residential PV arrays, to provide a range of services to the grid while supplying dispatchable electricity on demand. Under the SII, the government aims to manage at least 50 MW of capacity by 2020, to help companies develop new business models by combining PV …

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