Chubu Electric, Japan, plans to increase its investment in renewable energy and SMR overseas
A company executive revealed that Chubu Electric Power, Japan, plans to invest further in overseas decarbonisation projects, such as renewable energy, small-modular reactors (SMRs), or carbon capture and storage (CCS) to fuel the future growth of the company.
Chubu, the major regional electric utility in Japan, announced a long-term plan for 2021. This included a plan to invest 400 billion yen (about $2.7 billion) by the end of this decade on overseas assets, with a goal to make a recurring profit from these assets of 20 billion dollars by 2030.
Hiroki Sato, Senior Managing Executive Officer, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that "we are on track to reach our 2030 goals for the global business." He did not provide a specific number.
Chubu, a Japanese company that holds a 20% stake of Dutch energy firm Eneco has made many investment decisions in the past few years, including investments in Canada's geothermal venture Eavor Technologies and U.S. SMR startup NuScale Power.
The utility has also partnered up with BP to work on a CCS Project, which aims to collect CO2 at the port of Nagoya (central Japan) and export it abroad for storage.
Sato, who has extensive connections in the global energy sector, saw geothermal, CCS, and SMR as key pillars for Chubu's growth and climate change mitigation.
Sato, who expressed his intention to bring this technology to Japan, said that "Eavor’s technology could be game-changing for the global market of geothermal energy."
He also highlighted potential SMRs for regions like Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia and the United States.
Amazon.com’s recent decision to develop SMRs underscored the fact that nuclear energy and renewables were the best sources of energy to meet increasing demand for data centers, he said.
Sato stated that with the global trend, backed by more than 20 countries' agreement at the COP28 climate conference last year to increase nuclear power capacity "SMRs" and "next-generation reactors" are expected to make up a significant portion of the nuclear sector.
Our priority is to ensure that Japan's energy options are open and available with the latest global technologies.
Sato stated that Chubu Electric plans to increase its global portfolio of decarbonised energy through 2030. This will allow the company to benefit from domestic operations and investments, as well as potentially boost exposure to assets. $1 = 149.44 yen (Reporting and editing by Clarence Fernandez; Yuka Obayashi)
(source: Reuters)
