Rechargeable batteries in homes, businesses must be part of post-quake energy policy

Rechargeable batteries in homes, businesses must be part of post-quake energy policy

During the scheduled blackouts that Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) conducted soon after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, which triggered the ongoing Fukushima nuclear crisis, those within the blackout zones found they were unable to use their landline phones.

Back in the days when we used rotary landline phones, the electricity needed to power them was transmitted via telephone lines. In other words, phones didn't depend on an external power source, and could function even during power outages. However, with the increasingly common VoIP phones -- which use the Internet and are mediated by network routers set up in homes and offices -- they become useless when the power supply to those routers is cut off.

While the mammoth telephone company Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Corp. is planning to switch over phone accounts set up during its days as the government-owned Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corp. to the VoIP system, countermeasures against power outages must be taken into account.

Meanwhile, there has been an increased buzz surrounding the possibilities of natural energy sources such as solar power and wind power since the nuclear accident at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant.

Both solar power and wind power generation...

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/perspectives/news/20110610p2a00m0na003000c.html


Another article just posted about Panasonic moving to renewables from TV states that home energy storage is part of their approach.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x299130

not have a backup battery already installed. Everything needed to charge batteries is already in place.

And most people wouldn't recognize it as a value added feature.

Just my guess, of course. The proliferation of batteries for EVs is a cornerstone that will fundamentally change the way we view energy - that is also just my guess...