Japan To Open Seven New Coal Power Stations

By Paul Homewood  

 

http://www.thegwpf.com/reality-check-japans-coal-boom-continues/

 

 

Bad news for the greenies!!

 

Japan is continuing to re-embrace coal to make up for its lack of nuclear energy, with plans for another power station released Thursday bringing the number of new coal-fired plants announced this year to seven.

Utilities in Japan are eager to take advantage of coal’s relative cheapness to give them a competitive edge at a time when other countries are seeking to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions by moving away from a fuel source seen as dirty.

The liberalization of Japan’s power industry by 2020 will pit power companies against each other as rivals for the first time. In addition, with a relaxation of restrictions on coal power and no new emissions targets on the horizon, utilities are increasingly seeing coal as an important part of their business plans.

Kansai Electric Power Co. and Marubeni Corp. informed Akita prefecture on Thursday of their plans to build a new, 1.3-gigawatt coal-fired power station in the northern prefecture of Japan, the two companies said.

If all seven projects including the plant in Akita materialize, they will increase the nation’s coal-power generation by up to 7.26 gigawatts by around 2025. That is equivalent to seven medium-size nuclear reactors. […]

The relative cheapness of coal was indicated in a 2011 government report that estimated the cost of coal power in Japan at ¥7.5, or about 6 cents, per kilowatt-hour including construction and operation. The same report put the cost of nuclear power at ¥9 per kwh, gas power at ¥10 per kwh and oil power at ¥19 per kwh.

The moves by the power companies are “understandable” in light of the prolonged nuclear outage that has forced power utilities to rely on old, inefficient oil- and gas-power stations, said Hidetoshi Shioda, energy-industry analyst of SMBC Nikko Securities.

All of Japan’s 48 reactors are offline over safety concerns following the Fukushima nuclear accident, though four of them are expected to come back online later this year.

Before the nuclear accident in March 2011, the environment ministry had essentially blocked the building of new coal-power stations through tighter environmental assessments as Japan sought to meet ambitious greenhouse-gas reduction goals that have since been scrapped.

 

The new coal plants would have the potential to supply about 5% of Japan’s electricity. Fossil fuels already supply 86%  (based on the latest available data for 2012), with wind and solar only producing 1%.  

 

http://www.eia.gov/countries/cab.cfm?fips=JA

 

 

Meanwhile, the Telegraph report that new gas fields in Australia and the Gulf of Mexico will flood energy markets during the next decade:

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/11473839/After-oil-a-glut-of-natural-gas-may-be-next-to-flood-energy-markets.html

 

Thought you had seen the last of the huge price movements in the energy markets? Well, think again.

The supply glut which has led to a 50pc slide in oil prices over the past year will begin to grip the other major hydrocarbon product vital to global economies, liquefied natural gas (LNG).

This year will see a “wave” of new LNG production flooding on to international markets as several major projects in Australia finally come on stream after years of development and hundreds of billions of pounds invested.

LNG – natural gas chilled for transportation by giant tankers – has grown in popularity over the past decade through a mixture of higher demand from booming Asian economies and the need to cut carbon emissions.

The US Department of Energy estimates that natural gas burned in power plants produces about half as much carbon dioxide as coal and fewer nitrogen oxides, too.

According to BG Group, supply has remained stalled at levels recorded in 2011. The UK energy company estimates that last year shipments grew by only 1.5pc to around 243m tonnes. However, by 2025, the company is forecasting that the LNG supply will reach 400m tonnes, requiring more infrastructure and giant tankers.

This would represent a 5pc annual increase in demand over the next decade and almost twice the rate of growth expected to occur in consumption over the same period. Experts are now concerned that the market will be unable to keep pace with supply, leaving some LNG projects redundant.

Andrew Walker, BG Group vice-president of global LNG, said: “After four years of flat supply, we are entering a period of supply growth. 2014 marked the start of a new wave of supply from Australia. This will be joined by the first volumes from the US Gulf of Mexico around the end of 2015.

“This new supply will be absorbed by continued growth in Asian demand, together with the creation of up to six new markets in 2015, further diversifying the LNG trade and opening up new sales opportunities.”