Offshore
predict when the wind is likely to blow – or else install batteries on the barges, absorbing what little breeze does flutter by on calm days.
From Japan to Milan? Listen to Ito’s pitch, or stare at glossy pictures of the Power ARK, and it’s easy to be enraptured by PowerX’s mission. Fair enough – up to a point. The company undoubtedly means business, honing plans and securing wealthy investors. But it’s important to remember that not a single Power ARK has actually embarked on its maiden voyage. Those hundreds of grid batteries feel even more distant, with PowerX first needing to build a factory to produce them. The company hopes to be manufacturing 1GWh worth of cells annually by 2024, but right now the only images of the facility are digital mock-ups. There’s arguably a sense of just how far PowerX has to travel by glancing at its website, where the company still offers job openings for key engineering positions. To be fair, Ito does seem to understand the struggles to come. “The challenge is really actually to do it at scale,” he says, adding that he’s currently fundraising to build a prototype Power ARK. At any rate, if PowerX’s vessels do actually achieve their aims, the company could soon be a boon to Japanese power. Consider the numbers. Though transferring electricity on to batteries is slightly less energy-efficient than relying on traditional cables, Ito says the gap is just a few percentage points if the ships are fuelled by electricity. Would-be suppliers could cut that even further by relying on liquid natural gas. When it comes to profit margins, meanwhile, Ito argues that his battery vessels
World Wind Technology /
www.worldwind-technology.com
are anything from 6% less to 2% more profitable than underwater cables. To put it another way, the Power ARKs are probably a viable proposition – both technically and financially. With a new goal of producing around 36% of the country’s power from renewable sources by 2030, the Tokyo government is doubtless crossing its fingers too. Beyond the specifics of energy production, moreover, Ito suggests that the scale and enterprise of his project speak to his hopes for Japan more broadly. “Twenty years ago,” he says, “Japan was a tech country. But we’ve lost the consumer electronics sector. We’ve lost the cell phones. So Japan really needs to get stuff together and innovate, and be ambitious, and keep trying.” Clearly, a successful PowerX could spur more investment elsewhere in Japan’s ailing hardware sector. But for Ito, perhaps the ultimate draw is what it could do for other countries. With the perils of climate change increasingly stark, and new electric technology arriving each day, he believes there will soon be an elaborate global market for wind power. For security reasons, if nothing else, connecting countries to a single grid is impossible. But what if PowerX ships could one day deliver electricity-filled batteries to ports in need? “If we had the ships today, you could sell them between multiple European countries, the Mediterranean and the North Sea,” he says. “It’s got great potential to change how the next generation of energy is shared across the world.” A lofty aim. But if it could stop nation states from fighting and killing over our dwindling oil reserves, it’s surely one the world can get behind. ●
Model of a proposed manufacturing plant for PowerX’s grid batteries.
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