Innovation & Technology Innovation & Technology

Panasonic Provides Daytime Power to Indonesian Island with PV Power Package

Panasonic Corporation announced Tuesday it has installed the “Power Supply Container” (PSC), a stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) power package that it developed, at the National Elementary School Karimunjawa 01 in Karimunjawa Island, Jepara District, Central Jawa Province, Indonesia. On July 17, a handover ceremony was held jointly with project partner Koperasi Pundih Artah and the Institute of Business and Economic Democracy Foundation (IBEKA), an Indonesian NGO.

By Sustainable Brands | Published 10 years ago | About a 3 minute read

On the Island of Karimunjawa, electricity is available at night thanks to diesel generators, but in the daytime these generators are stopped, cutting off electricity to the villagers. No power during the daytime interferes with administrative and commercial activities, so improvement of the educational environment has been the top priority for the island. To solve this issue, Koperasi Pundih Artah, which received Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security, IBEKA and Panasonic have launched a project for improving the educational environment, by supplying and installing the Power Supply Container, under the cooperation of Jepara District and the Embassy of Japan in Indonesia.

Panasonic’s PSC is equipped with twelve of the company’s “HIT(R)240” solar modules, which have high conversion efficiency and can each generate approximately 3 kW of electricity. It can also provide stored power from 24 built-in lead-acid storage batteries (17.2 kWh as total).

During school hours, the PSC provides power so children and staff can use LED lighting fixtures, ceiling fans and audiovisual educational materials. When there are no classes, the electricity is sold to nearby areas through a management association of the Power Supply Container to enable community activities and improve the regional electricity infrastructure.

For its part, Panasonic has supplied the PSC and offered IBEKA technical assistance; while IBEKA is helping to establish management associations in Karimunjawa for independent operation of power supplies, and provides training and support for their operation, management and maintenance to achieve a sustainable power supply in Karimunjawa.

Panasonic says it will further strive to provide a richer and more comfortable lifestyle in Indonesia and other emerging countries with unstable electricity infrastructure by extending a stable power supply and backup power sources to places that suffer frequent power blackouts, and provide improved social support, including emergency power sources, in the event of disasters.

In Africa, a number of companies are innovating to bring light to areas with no electricity at all - fellow electronics giant Philips has created "community light centers," which use solar-powered LED lamps to illuminate 1,000 square miles of parts of rural Africa without electricity, providing nighttime lighting to some 560 million African citizens in these off-grid areas. And UK-based startup Deciwatt, winner of our 2013 SB London Innovation Open, has created another lighting solution that aims to eliminate the use of harmful kerosene lamps in homes and buildings: The GravityLight is a battery-free LED lantern that can produce 25 minutes of light upon descending a weight, and only takes three seconds to lift. With no batteries and no need for solar energy, GravityLight can be used multiple times with no operational costs. Even with the 0.1W of power it produces, Deciwatt says GravityLight produces a light superior to kerosene lamps and can also power various other low-power devices such as torches and radios.