Japanese electronics giant Panasonic will power its UK manufacturing facility through the integrated control of three types of energy sources: hydrogen fuel cell generators, solar photovoltaic (PV) generators and energy storage batteries.
It has invested £113m to develop ‘Panasonic HX’ – an energy solution utilising hydrogen – and launch the technology in a demonstration plant in Cardiff. This technology will then be extended to a further European plant in 2025.
The retrofit to the 50-year-old Cardiff facility, which manufactures microwave ovens and small appliances, will enable the plant to be powered by 100% renewable energy.
The decentralised system will be optimised for the amount of electricity used by the factory.
The system includes 21 units of 5kW pure hydrogen fuel cell generators combined with 372kW PV generators and 1MWh storage batteries.
The battery storage will provide renewable energy to the facility and collect the electricity of the PV system – even at times when the factory...