Sanyo has announced the completion of it’s “Kasai Green Energy Park”, a facility designed to showcase the company’s energy solutions.
The park, located in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, includes a 1 megawatt solar farm based on Sanyo HIT solar panels.
Sanyo HIT (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin layer) technology provides a very high conversion efficiency with a small footprint, making it possible to install more capacity compared to other conventional solar panels. Sanyo HIT solar panels are a popular choice in Australian home solar power systems due to their ability to maintain higher efficiency than a conventional crystalline silicon solar cell in hot conditions.
The Kasai Green Energy Park is also equipped with a 1.5MWh lithium-ion battery system for power storage; containing 310,000 cylindrical lithium-ion batteries. Sanyo says it’s the largest system of its type in the world.
Solar power generated from the panels charging the batteries is controlled by a special system developed by Sanyo to manage a number of batteries as if they are one.
The park will contribute to the development of new products and systems as a testing site for the Panasonic Group and will also be open to customers as a showroom promoting energy solutions.
Panasonic became a majority shareholder in Sanyo in December of last year. In July this year, Panasonic announced plans to acquire 100 percent of the company as a move to bolster its green businesses such as solar panel production. Panasonic President Fumio Ohtsubo believes that clean, green energy related ventures including solar power will be the mainstay of the company in the future.
