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Asia Minute: Japan's energy firms and utilities buying into renewable energy in Australia

FILE - In this 2012 photo, solar panels cover the 11-hectare compound of the Ukishima Solar Power Station in Kawasaki near Tokyo.
Itsuo Inouye
/
AP
FILE - In this 2012 photo, solar panels cover the 11-hectare compound of the Ukishima Solar Power Station in Kawasaki near Tokyo.

An Australian company working on renewable energy has caught the attention of one of Japan's largest utilities.

Here's a small example of big change in the world's energy sector.

Start with a utility — Japan Electric Power Development — more commonly known as J-Power.

It produces electricity from coal and hydroelectric power, and also operates transmission lines connecting Japan's four main islands.

J-Power is spending about a quarter of a billion U.S. dollars to buy Genex, an Australian renewable energy company with wind and solar assets.

Genex also has big plans for pumped storage hydropower — a way of generating and storing electricity — kind of a giant battery — in this case using an abandoned gold mine.

It needs financing to expand that project.

J-Power is anxious to stay on track with its timetable to cut carbon dioxide emissions — and could use renewable insights from Genex.

And it's not alone.

Just last year, another Japanese power giant bought half of another Australian renewable energy firm.

Tokyo-based Inpex invested several hundred million dollars in Enel Green Power Australia.

The common theme here: large traditional Japanese energy companies providing capital — and renewable energy firms showing potential paths to a new future.

Bill Dorman has been the news director at Hawaiʻi Public Radio since 2011.
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