The project was initiated last April by Hokuriku Electric Power Company, which is headquartered in Toyama, in partnership with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. It is the third such announcement from the ‘Green Crossover Town’, an EnerDel-Itochu collaboration, previewed at EnerDel’s technical seminar last week in Indiana.
The Green Crossover Town comprises a roll-out of integrated systems that provide the l link between renewable energy, charging for electric cars and the local utility grid.
The two previous announcements combine a residential smart grid energy storage project at an Itochu-owned building in Tokyo and a smart grid integration project involving Mazda and a chain of Itochu-owned convenience stores in Japan.
EnerDel’s battery systems are also being used in 16 fuel cell buses made by coach builder Van Hool and UTC Power, a unit of United Technologies Corporation.
Twelve of them will go to California’s Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit), while four others will be used by various transit agencies as part of the US Federal Transit Administration’s National Fuel Cell Bus Program.
Itochu is EnerDel’s official sales and marketing partner in Japan, and has been an investor in parent company Ener1, since 2003. In July, EnerDel and Itochu joined with EnerDel customer Think to convert electric drive delivery trucks for Japan’s postal service.
