Japan

Duke Energy this week said it has a definitive agreement to sell a minority interest in part of its commercial renewable energy portfolio owned and operated by its affiliate, Duke Energy Renewables, to the John Hancock Infrastructure Fund and John Hancock Life Insurance Company. Duke in an April 24 release said the interest is valued […]

A German business magazine reports that Siemens is exploring options for its struggling gas turbine business, and could look to form a joint venture with Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI). Manager Magazin on March 21 said Siemens “wants to accommodate the large turbine business of the Japanese Mitsubishi Group and in the future hold only a […]

The chief executive of Vistra Energy Corp. last week said coal is not likely to regain market share in the U.S. power market. Curtis Morgan, in a panel discussion March 14 at the CERAWeek event in Houston, Texas, said “coal is on its way out. More and more plants are being retired.” It’s not the […]

Several developments worldwide impacted the power generation landscape in the past week, including more news about the closure of a coal-fired power plant in Alabama, the restart of a geothermal facility in Hawaii, and construction of a biomass-fueled power plant in Japan. In addition, a company said it plans a $150 million investment in three […]

After the Great Tohoku Earthquake and tsunami, and ensuing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March 2011, Japan issued stringent safety regulations and reviews that affected its entire 50-reactor fleet. It meant that as each Japanese nuclear reactor entered its scheduled maintenance and refueling outage, it could not returned to operation until restart […]

The Distribution System Is Newest Energy Transition Frontier in Europe. The European power sector is urging member states and regulators within the European Union (EU) to speed up development of

KYOTO, Japan (February 25, 2019) — Kyocera Corporation and New York-based LO3 Energy today announced a joint project to test the feasibility of a blockchain-managed virtual power plant (VPP) utilizing a peer-to-peer distributed consensus network. The test will start Feb. 28, 2019 at Kyocera’s Yokohama Nakayama Office in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, where a small VPP will […]

Hitachi and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), two giant Japanese companies with substantial stakes in the world’s power sector, are separately rethinking future business directions as sizable disruptions shake up prospects for traditional market growth. In recent months, Hitachi refined its business model to prepare it for explosive demand in  digitalization solutions, focusing heavily on grid […]

In 2017, the 10 largest power companies, ranked by their installed generation capacity, owned 18% of total global installed capacity, while the next-largest 15 owned around 10%—meaning that the top 25 companies own nearly 30% of global installed power generation capacity, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Chinese companies account for more than one-eighth of global installed […]

Hitachi may cancel its plans for a $20.5 billion nuclear power project in Wales, according to several media reports from the UK and Japan. The Japanese company is expected to determine the fate of the project at a board meeting this week. The Guardian newspaper was among those that in recent days reported an impasse in […]

What began in the world of finance has moved into the power sector. Blockchain, a nascent technology most often associated with cryptocurrency, is a new frontier in the energy space, changing the way power is

Hitachi Ltd. and ABB could announce an $11 billion deal as soon as December 17 in which Hitachi will acquire 80% of ABB’s power grids unit. Reports of the possible deal surfaced December 16, with Bloomberg and others citing sources familiar with the agreement who asked not to be identified. Neither ABB nor Hitachi commented […]

Veolia Hungary Creates VPP Portfolio. Veolia Hungary in October acquired a 51% ownership share in CHP Eromu Kft., the first step in a process for Veolia to create a virtual power plant (VPP) portfolio. The

A newly introduced Senate bill aims to make federal loan guarantees available for new high-efficiency, low-emissions (HELE) coal power plants in the U.S. Although it spearheads considerable research and development initiatives to advance coal technology, the nation’s pipeline of coal builds remains virtually vacant, and it now lags painfully behind Asia and Europe in demonstration […]

KATSUURA CITY, JAPAN (November 7, 2018) — GE has been selected by Toyo Engineering Corporation on behalf of the project owner, GK KS Power 1, a special purpose vehicle consortium by GE Energy Financial Service and K-Energy, to provide its 1,500-volt inverters to build the 24-megawatt (MW) solar plant project located in Katsuura City, Chiba […]

The challenges for Japan’s nuclear power industry have been many in the wake of the Fukushima disaster. Returning units to commercial operation requires meeting new government safety standards, along with

Redwood City, Calif. (September 19, 2018) — AutoGrid is scaling up its presence in Japan. AutoGrid today announced a partnership with Macnica, a leading Japanese supplier of networking and software products to governments and enterprise customers, to deploy its suite of energy internet applications, AutoGrid Flex and AutoGrid Engage. The partnership will focus on extending AutoGrid […]

TORONTO, September 18, 2018— Grasshopper Solar, Canada’s largest vertically integrated solar energy company, announces a USD $10 million investment in six solar power plants from Univergy Solar in Japan. These six ground mount projects, ranging from 439kW to 971kW totaling 4 MW, will utilize 12,500 solar panels, generate 4,544 MWh of clean energy and deliver […]

Nuclear power’s share of the world’s power generating mix could shrink dramatically from 10% in 2017 to just 5.6% in 2050 as the industry struggles with “reduced competitiveness,” the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) suggested in a new report. The international organization based in Vienna, Austria, that works to promote the peaceful use of nuclear […]

 The Japanese government has pushed for the reuse of mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel in the country’s nuclear reactors, but utilities that finance the reprocessing have not funded those operations since fiscal year 2016, according to financial reports released by the power companies on September 2. Japan’s KYODO News reported that sources said 10 utilities, including Tokyo […]

Israel Embarks on a Major Electricity Reform. Under a law passed on July 19, Israel will break up a monopoly held by state-owned Israel Electric Corp. (IEC) and open the country’s electricity sector to new

According to the International Energy Agency, global natural gas trade has grown by more than 40% over the past 15 years. Over the next five years, current trade flows are expected to significantly diversify, boosted by development of liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure. LNG trade, which grew by 11% in 2017 to 391 billion cubic […]

Kyocera Corporation and Tokyo Century Corporation announced that Kyocera TCL Solar LLC (herein “Kyocera TCL Solar”) has completed construction of a 28-MW utility-scale solar power plant in the town of Taiwa, Kurokawa District, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The company has developed this solar power plant in collaboration with Tokyo-based Tsuboi Corporation and started operations in late June […]

Japan’s government on July 3 approved a new Basic Energy Plan for the country, saying it is committed to increasing the role of renewable resources for power generation while also confirming it wants nuclear power to remain a vital part of the nation’s energy strategy. Japan issues a revised Basic Energy Plan, which outlines the […]

Renewable Projects Planned in Australia. CWP Renewables, a company based in Newcastle, New South Wales (NSW), Australia, on May 28 said it received a $700 million investment from Partners Group, a

Valmet will supply a multifuel power boiler and a flue gas cleaning system to Air Water & Energia Power Onahama Corporation at Onahama Plant located at Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The new CFB boiler will enable the power plant to achieve a stable power supply at high thermal efficiency while significantly reducing CO2 emissions. The […]

Unit 4 of Japan’s Ohi nuclear power plant is online again, the eighth reactor in the country to resume service after the Fukushima disaster in 2011. Japan idled all 50 of its remaining nuclear units after the incident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which occurred when a 9.0-magnitude earthquake in March 2011 caused a massive […]

Siemens Gamesa continues to reinforce its presence in Japan by reaching its first agreement with Tokyu Land Corporation for two projects in Hokkaido, and will supply 22 of its SWT-3.4-108 wind turbines. Both nacelles and hubs will be manufactured in Denmark, while the blades will be produced in China and Denmark. The turbines will be […]

Siemens, one of the world’s largest turbine manufacturers, said it plans to temporarily shut its Power & Gas (PG) division operations worldwide in an effort to cut costs. The Germany-based energy giant in a May 7 news release said, “The shutdowns are part of a comprehensive package of measures, which also includes issues such as […]

NTPC Commissions First Unit of Lara Project. The first unit of the 4,000-MW super thermal power project in Chhattisgarh in India was commissioned in late March by NTPC. The coal-fired plant, a $4.62