報告書番号

Y99007

タイトル（和文）

産業社会の変化を見据えた電力技術開発の展開 -－マイクロ技術の登場が技術開発等に与える影響を中心として－-

タイトル（英文）

Electricity-Related R&D in line with the Change of Industrial Society

概要 （図表や脚注は「報告書全文」に掲載しております）

90年代の後半に極小規模の発電技術の開発と商業化が国内外の同業種・異業種・ベンチャー企業で急速に進んでいる。極小規模発電の登場によって、需要者の意識が変わり、ネットワーク依存型電力需給の構造も変化する可能性もあり、産業社会の変化を見据えた技術開発の展望と戦略の必要性が高まっている。本報告では、米国で急速に技術開発・商品化が進む「燃料電池」と「マイクロガスタービン」を例にとり、第一に、新型の超小型発電技術の開発が90年代の後半に進展した理由を分析し、開発を行うベンチャー企業、商業化を意図する異業種の実態を調べた。第二に、超小型発電技術の電力産業への影響を調べ、大小規模の技術が混在する可能性のある我が国の将来の電力ネットワーク像を段階的に概念化した。これらを踏まえて、産業社会の変化を見据えた電力産業の研究開発のコンセプトを例示した。

概要 （英文）

Over the last half a century, especially since the oil crisis in the 70’s, large technologies represented by the centralized generation technology (CG technology) have been pursued and realized in line with the expansion of national economy. However, the situation surrounding the electric industry has changed dramatically with the end of cold war, which caused the global competition and set a trend for the deregulated environment.The late 90’s is the watershed in electricity-related R&D. The deregulated environment coupling with the mega-trend of the downsizing of the technology and the technological innovation for the global climate change is making the driving forces to develop and commercialize the non-traditional small-sized generation systems.The emergence of new type of distributed generation technologies (DG Technology) such as fuel cells and micro gas turbines being developed chiefly in the auto industry and U.S. start-ups is said to have a tremendous impact on the business and R&D in the electric industry.The present paper mainly describes the possible change of electricity supply network due to the emergence of DG technologies and its impacts on future electricity-related R&D. On the basis of the survey and analysis on small technologies, it is stressed that the priority of R&D in the foreseeable future should be placed not only on large technologies but also on small technologies with the expectation of the improvement of energy efficiency by pursuing the enabling technologies. Finally, the importance of maintaining the constantly revised R&D framework in line with the change of industrial society is pointed out.

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