The Tokyo-based conglomerate is working with Hitachi Chemical and lithium-ion battery manufacturer Shin-Kobe Electric Machinery — a wholly owned Hitachi group unit — to test the system on Izu Oshima island through February 2016.

The project is the second energy-storage demonstration project to be launched in the isolated Izu Oshima archipelago in recent months.

Regional utility Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO) are also participating in the project, which has been designed to address the “challenge” of integrating solar- and wind-generated electricity into the grid.