Tohoku Electric Sets Example Through International and Domestic Clean Energy Projects

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Amid solar-to-energy developments and nuclear power plant additions, Tohoku Electric Power Company Incorporated (TYO:9506) (Sendai, Japan) is emerging as an exemplary utility company in Japan. Despite its size when compared to other members of the Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan, Tohoku is taking extraordinary measures to ensure that the Kyoto Protocol is observed and implemented, and that the public is aware of activities related to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions and global warming.

Internationally, two of Tohoku's leading projects have involved afforestation and participation in the World Bank's Prototype Carbon Fund, a collaboration between companies and governments geared toward a reduction in CO2 emissions through clean or green energy projects. In Australia, Tohoku has funded and heavily participated in the Albany Plantation Forest Company (APFL), a joint venture between Tohoku and other Japanese utility companies. The APFL plantation spans more than 24,000 hectares and serves as a recycling zone for logging and pulp wood.

Earlier in the decade, Tohoku became involved in co-generation and energy-saving model projects in Kazakhstan, then later on in Vietnam and the Philippines. Each of the projects focused on the utilization of different types of fuels, such as natural gas and biogas, as well as gas recovery from water repositories. Recently in Japan, Tohoku has begun investing more than $4 billion in several clean energy projects. Tohoku's Unit 2 of the Higashidori Nuclear Power Station is in the books, and Tohoku is also preparing the construction of a couple of solar plants in northern Japan. Another project scheduled for construction is Unit 3 of New Sendai Thermal Power Station outside of Sendai, some 400 kilometers north of Tokyo in the Miyagi prefecture. Unit 3 comes after the decommissioning of the obsolete units 1 and 2, and Tohoku plans to use its new liquefied natural gas (LNG) combined-cycle technology. The new unit, which is planned to generate 950 megawatts (MW), will use an advanced combined-cycle of gas and steam turbines in order to reduce the company's overall CO2 emissions, nitrogen oxide emissions, and heated waste water through the use of clean-burning LNG. Tohoku is investing another $900 million in the new unit, which is scheduled to be completed in 2016 after kicking off in early 2012.

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