J-Power Teams Up with Mitsubishi Materials and Mitsubishi Gas Chemical

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--On April 12, 2010, the formation of the joint venture Yuzawa Geothermal Company Limited was announced by three Japanese firms: Electric Power Development Company Limited (TYO:9513) (J-Power) (Chuo, Japan), which has a 50% stake in the venture; Mitsubishi Materials Corporation (Chiyoda, Japan), which has a 30% stake; and Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company Incorporated (TYO:4182) (Chiyoda), which takes the remaining 20% stake.

Yuzawa Geothermal was created to oversee the trio's development and construction of a US$448 million geothermal plant planned for the Akita prefecture, on the northern Honshu Island of Japan. Construction, which is set to kick off early in 2012, will take place within Tamatsu National Forest near Yuzawa, approximately 50 kilometers inland from the Sea of Japan and approximately 400 kilometers north of Tokyo. The new firm recently finished feasibility studies, and plans to move ahead with plans to complete the 60-megawatt Wasabizawa Geothermal Power Plant by the fall of 2016. Though Japan is rich in geothermal activity, no geothermal plants have been built in recent years, partly because of high construction costs. Yuzawa Geothermal's plant appears to be one of the first of its kind to be built in since 1999.

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