A Power Supply Container installed in Panasonic Indonesia factory grounds. (Credit: Panasonic)Panasonic announced it has developed the “Power Supply Container,” a stand-alone photovoltaic power package, for areas without electricity. The Power Supply Container contains solar modules, lead-acid batteries, as well as a control unit that acts as the energy management system.
The Power Supply Container will will act as a power source for the National Elementary School Karimunjawa 01 on Karimunjawa Island (Indonesia) under the Indonesian government’s educational environment improvement policy for isolated islands.
The Power Supply Container is equipped with twelve Panasonic HIT 240 solar modules which have a high conversion efficiency and can generate approximately 3 kW of electricity. It is also equipped with 24 lead-acid storage batteries (17.2 kW·h as total) which can supply stored power.
Power Supply Container, outline of system structure. (Credit: Panasonic). Click to enlarge.
The project will supply power to the electrical equipment in the school and classrooms during school time, while the excess energy generated out of school hours will be supplied to the local community, helping to stabilize the local power supply.
Indonesia consists of roughly 13,000 islands, and so there is a lack of access to electricity particularly among the minor islands where development of power generation facilities and distribution networks is difficult. In Karimunjawa, electricity is available at night from diesel generators, but in the daytime there is no electricity, which results in an insufficient educational environment.
Panasonic aims to continue to develop its Power Supply Container as a solution for areas without electricity or places facing frequent power blackouts in Indonesia and other Asian countries and emerging nations.
The container is designed so that no onsite professional construction work is needed, allowing an electrical contractor to easily and quickly install the Power Supply Container, helping to spread the adoption of the system in the smaller islands of Indonesia. In addition, as the system is in the form of a container, it can be easily moved from where it is installed to another area without electricity. Also, by increasing the load-bearing apparatus, additional containers can also be added to further expand their functions.
