Japan to phase out 100 coal-fired power units to cut CO2 emissions

July 3, 202

TOKYO

Japan will close the majority of its aging coal-fired power plants over the next decade as it looks to cut down on carbon emissions and shift toward using more renewable energy, government sources said Thursday.

Resource-poor Japan relies on coal for about a third of its energy needs. Of the 140 coal-fired generators in the country, 114 are older and considered to be low efficiency. The government aims to take about 100 of them offline in stages by fiscal 2030.

Industry minister Hiroshi Kajiyama broached the idea in a meeting on Thursday with the heads of Japan's largest electric utilities, according to an official at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Kajiyama is expected to announce the move as early as Friday.

The ministry plans to set up an expert panel to come up with ways to push electric utilities away from coal, with one option being the setting of quotas on the amount of electricity they are allowed to produce using low efficiency generators.

The government will promote solar, wind and other forms of renewable energy, which provides just 17 percent of Japan's electricity generation, as well as look to restart more of the nuclear reactors that were halted following the 2011 Fukushima crisis.

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