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Potential for rooftop photovoltaics in Tokyo to replace nuclear capacity
Interesting exercise. Of course, solar is only one arrow in the quiver of our renewable portfolio, so this is useful mostly as an example of resource scaling. The amount of existing storage is a surprise.
Potential for rooftop photovoltaics in Tokyo to replace nuclear capacity
OPEN ACCESS
B L Stoll, T A Smith and M R Deinert
B L Stoll et al 2013 Environ. Res. Lett. 8 014042
doi:10.1088/1748-9326/8/1/014042
Abstract
In 2010, nuclear power accounted for 27% of electricity production in Japan. The March 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power station resulted in the closure of all of Japan's nuclear power plants and it remains an open question as to how many will reopen. Even before the loss of nuclear capacity, there were efforts in Japan to foster the use of renewable energy, including large scale solar power. Nuclear power plants in Japan provided more than just base-load by storing energy in large scale pumped hydroelectric storage systems, which was then released to provide some peaking capacity. If this storage were instead coupled to current generation rooftop solar systems in Tokyo, the combined system could help to meet peak requirements while at the same time providing ~26.5% of the electricity Tokyo used to get from nuclear output, and do so 91% of the time. Data from a study of rooftop space and a 34 yr data set of average daily irradiance in the Tokyo metropolitan area were used. Using pumped hydroelectric storage with 5.6 times this rooftop area could completely provide for TEPCO's nuclear capacity.
4. Conclusions
We have analyzed the potential for using the available rooftop area in the Kanto region of Japan as a base for a distributed photovoltaic system that could help provide base-load electricity for the region. We estimated that a total area of 297.5 km2 is currently available. When coupled to the 7.28 GW of pumped hydroelectric storage owned by TEPCO, the combined system was found capable of providing 4.8 GWe 91% of the time. It was also estimated that a photovoltaic array of 1700 km2, coupled to 18.1 GW of storage capacity would be sufficient to replace TEPCO's 2010 nuclear capacity.
OPEN ACCESS
B L Stoll, T A Smith and M R Deinert
B L Stoll et al 2013 Environ. Res. Lett. 8 014042
doi:10.1088/1748-9326/8/1/014042
Abstract
In 2010, nuclear power accounted for 27% of electricity production in Japan. The March 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power station resulted in the closure of all of Japan's nuclear power plants and it remains an open question as to how many will reopen. Even before the loss of nuclear capacity, there were efforts in Japan to foster the use of renewable energy, including large scale solar power. Nuclear power plants in Japan provided more than just base-load by storing energy in large scale pumped hydroelectric storage systems, which was then released to provide some peaking capacity. If this storage were instead coupled to current generation rooftop solar systems in Tokyo, the combined system could help to meet peak requirements while at the same time providing ~26.5% of the electricity Tokyo used to get from nuclear output, and do so 91% of the time. Data from a study of rooftop space and a 34 yr data set of average daily irradiance in the Tokyo metropolitan area were used. Using pumped hydroelectric storage with 5.6 times this rooftop area could completely provide for TEPCO's nuclear capacity.
4. Conclusions
We have analyzed the potential for using the available rooftop area in the Kanto region of Japan as a base for a distributed photovoltaic system that could help provide base-load electricity for the region. We estimated that a total area of 297.5 km2 is currently available. When coupled to the 7.28 GW of pumped hydroelectric storage owned by TEPCO, the combined system was found capable of providing 4.8 GWe 91% of the time. It was also estimated that a photovoltaic array of 1700 km2, coupled to 18.1 GW of storage capacity would be sufficient to replace TEPCO's 2010 nuclear capacity.
Open access, full paper available to view or download here:
http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/1/014042/article
