KARIYA, Japan—Denso Corp. has launched a pilot program to test a new energy management system at its assembly plant in Nishio, Japan, as part of efforts to eliminate CO2 emissions from the facility.
The system consists of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) developed by Denso, as well as a storage battery for transmitting electricity to the plant. It also includes a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) system, which enables the use of an electric vehicle as a storage battery to send energy to and from the power grid or solar panels.
An SOFC is a device that generates electricity using hydrogen as fuel. Unlike solar power generation, it can generate electricity steadily without being influenced by weather conditions. The SOFC developed by DENSO incorporates thermal management technology and fuel recycling technology. It is 65 percent efficient in generating electricity.
At the Nishio plant, the equipment is being used to conduct a demonstration with the aim of managing energy more efficiently by charging and discharging batteries and controlling SOFC power generation according to factory power demand. The start of the demonstration will begin with using natural gas, but will eventually transition to carbon-neutral gases, such as hydrogen.
