Coming Soon from Toshiba: Consumer Energy Storage Device
A friend just sent me a note on this compact, consumer-oriented energy storage device from Toshiba. I’m wondering if it’s a hoax. It delivers 3 kW of stored electricity for 12 hours? If it’s using lithium ion and combines the very best characteristics, it will weigh about 300 pounds, occupy about 15 gallons of space, and cost about $15,000, plus whatever profit Toshiba wants to make on it. If its purpose, as mentioned in the article, is to enable its user to buy power at off-peak rates and use it on peak, in most parts of the U.S., it would take about 12000 cycles (33 years) to pay for itself. Of course, if the power in your area is horrifically unreliable and you want an uninterruptable power supply on steroids, maybe you’ll find this attractive.
We can offer a similar system right now.
I doubt this product is targeted at the US market. Energy prices (and differentials) are much higher in Japan.
Looking at TEPCO’s residential rates (http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/customer/guide/ratecalc-e.html), a user can save in 2 ways: a lower demand charge, as well as lower energy charges amounting to about 13 yen (17 cents) per kwh. Based just on the energy charges, a residential customer in Tokyo on 10-hr night rate would have a 6.7 year payback. (less because of savings from the lower demand charge.)
This system might also enable a use to be on TEPCO’s “night-only” rate, which would save about 2000 yen a month ($300/year) in basic charges, and 15 cents per kwh. This gives a total savings of about $2,300 /year and so the system would pay for itself in 6 yrs 7 mos.
Thanks, Tom. Good points.
Craig I think 12 hrs at 3kW is incorrect – 3kW is maximum output. Don’t know how many kWhrs needed for a typical home for 12 hrs but much less than 36kW hrs. less again if it’s an energy efficient home. Thus much less cost than than you calculate.
In Europe a similar thing is being used for solar fitted homes – I doubt it’s cost effective for it’s purpose (yet), purpose being to help match solar output to energy usage and when enough are fitted to impact the evening peak load on the grid. The limited capacity is intended to get through that peak, but that would have a big impact.
Here in Australia, energy companies are just discovering that rooftop solar is (to their apparent disbelief and discomfit) sufficient to significantly impact supply and load within the grid and are using their formidable lobbying power to try and see rooftop solar owners forced to sell all they produce at equivalent to wholesale coal power, below 10c per kWhr, to be promptly and profitably resold right back (depending on time of day) at 30 to 50c. If they are sold at a reasonable cost, such a device could be very popular with owners of PV. Of course large scale storage ought to be more cost effective to do the same thing but the big energy companies here are firmly tied to fossil fuels and have been heels-dug-in impediments rather than groundbreaking leaders of a shift to renewables.
Just a PS – the Toshiba device apparently has a storage capacity of 6.6 kWhrs.
OK, thanks for the correction.