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INTRODUCTION OF AIST TSUKUBA CENTER 
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- THE JAPAN'S LARGEST INTRODUCTION OF PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS REACHED
ONE-MEGAWATT FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF THE PERFORMANCE AND RELIABILITY OF GRID-CONNECTED PV SYSTEMS -
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ABSTRACT:
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) installed additional PV systems, 869 kilowatt in total (844 kilowatt of power conditioners) under the scope of
"Advanced Improvement Project for Introducing Demonstration Plants of Distributed Energy Supply System", Supplementary Budget for Fiscal 2002 of 800
million Yen (approximately $7.25 million and €5.92 million as of 1st June 2004). The total capacity of the PV systems in the AIST Tsukuba Center reached
one megawatt, and became the largest PV facilities in Japan.
The new PV facilities consist of 5,600 PV modules and 211 grid-connected inverters (four-kilowatt in each), which are typical components for residential use in the
market in Japan. Thus, the facilities are not only electrical equipment in the AIST but also research and demonstration
facilities and showcases in Japan. By utilizing these PV systems, the authors are doing research on the assessment of
the performance and reliability of grid-connected systems. Hundred PV systems will be monitored every one minute by using performance diagnosis system developed by the authors for the
performance analysis.
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- INTRODUCTION -
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Japan's first installation of megawatt-class solar photovoltaic (PV) systems was completed at AIST Tsukuba Center in April 2004. Additional PV systems, 869
kilowatt in total (844 kilowatt of power conditioners) were installed to demonstrate and evaluate state-of-the-art energy technology, and to explore the
possibility of integrating such systems aesthetically into the urban environment. The total capacity of the PV systems in AIST Tsukuba Center reached one megawatt, and
became the largest PV facilities in Japan. The project was carried out under the scope of the Advanced Improvement Project for Introducing Demonstration Plants
of Distributed Energy Supply System, Supplementary Budget for Fiscal 2002 of 800 million Yen (approximately $7.25 million and €5.92 million as of 1st June
2004).
The one megawatt PV system is expected to supply about one million kWh of clean
'solar' electricity
annually to AIST Tsukuba Center (about 0.8% of the area's annual electric consumption). This is equivalent to an annual power consumption of about 300
typical households in Japan. This use of eclean'energy is calculated to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 300 tons annually. Figure 1 shows the monthly output electricity from the
system, which was estimated by the author's simulation technique [1] in the design stage.
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Figure 1: Monthly output electricity estimated by our simulation technique
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| [1] K.Kato et al., to be presented in 19th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference (2004).
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