Solar power purchase system ends from this month Shift from “Power Sales” to “Power Storage” November 1, 6:01
The system that requires electric power companies to purchase electricity generated by solar panels at homes at a fixed price will end sequentially from this month. As a result, the purchase price will drop significantly, and it is expected that there will be a greater shift from “electricity sales” that sell electricity to power companies to “electricity storage” that is stored in batteries and used directly.
The current system for residential solar power generation started in November 2009 and requires electric power companies to buy surplus electricity from the generated electricity at a fixed price. .
This system has a contract period of 10 years, and the contract period will end sequentially from this month for households participating from the beginning of the system.
Even after the contract period is over, you can sell electricity to power companies, etc., but the purchase price per kilowatt hour was 48 yen at the beginning of the system, from 7 yen to 10 yen in the future. It will fall greatly.
For this reason, it is expected that more homes will be used for storage at night without storing excess electricity during the day.
Along with this, demand for storage batteries for housing is expected to grow, and manufacturers are focusing on the development and sales of new products.
What is the feed-in tariff system for solar power generation?
The feed-in tariff system for solar power generation in homes started in November 2009, 10 years ago.
Introduced to accelerate the spread of solar power generation as a measure against global warming, and the electric power company will purchase the remaining electricity that is not consumed at home at a predetermined price for 10 years. I made it mandatory.
The purchase price per kilowatt hour was 48 yen at the beginning of the system, which was set significantly higher than the fee paid to the power company. Due to the price advantage, the number of contracts using the system exceeded 3 million nationwide in three years.
Since then, the purchase price has been gradually reduced, but the number of contracts has increased to approximately 2.55 million.
As a result, the amount of solar power installed in homes based on the system exceeded 10 million kilowatts, which is equivalent to about 10 standard nuclear power plants.
On the other hand, in this system, the cost of purchasing is added to the electricity bill, so the burden on consumers is also increasing. The amount of additional charges, including solar power generation for business use, is expected to increase to 9204 yen per year in standard households this year.
The households of “storage shift”
Yukio Kuroda (61), who lives in Narita, Chiba, has 40 solar panels installed on the roof of his garage.
We have been participating since the start of the system in November 2009, and sell excess electricity that is not used up at home to TEPCO.
The purchase price was 48 yen per kilowatt hour, and there was a month when the income after deducting the electricity bill paid exceeded 5000 yen.
However, the 10-year purchase period will soon be over and the purchase price will drop to 8.5 yen per kilowatt hour.
Kuroda-san bought a storage battery for housing last month, thinking that it would be better to use it on his own rather than selling it because the benefits of selling electricity would fade.
It is said that it took about 2 million yen, but in addition to being able to use the electricity stored in the daytime at night, it also helps prepare for a power outage.
Kuroda-san said, “I was at a loss because of the high price, but I installed a storage battery. I think it will be meaningful in terms of self-protection because power outages due to typhoons and other disasters are expected in the future.”
Manufacturers focus on storage batteries
As the feed-in tariff system ends, manufacturers are focusing on the development and sales of storage batteries for homes.
Among these, Panasonic plans to sell more than 20,000 storage batteries, which is twice the previous year.
We have sold over 1.2 million yen with a storage capacity of 5.6 kWh, but since late last month we have also introduced new products with a capacity of 3.5 kWh and a price of around 800,000 yen. It means that you can connect two types of storage batteries to increase the capacity.
Noritaka Takahashi, Director of the Panasonic Energy Systems Division, says, “Not only the end of the feed-in tariff system, but recently there is an increasing need to use it during disasters such as typhoons. .
Kyocera, on the other hand, will develop a new lithium-ion battery that will last longer than before, and use it in a residential energy storage system. The newly developed battery has reduced the manufacturing cost by about 30% by making the electrode layer a clay rather than a liquid.
In addition, it is said that changing the ingredients and composition of the material has allowed it to last several years longer than conventional products, reducing the risk of ignition.
The company will commercialize it as a power storage system combined with photovoltaic power generation installed in a house, and plan to sell it from next January.