Japan's NTT aims to expand renewable energy capacity to 7.5 GW by 2030

Lawson

30/06/2020 07:20

TOKYO, June 30 (Reuters) - Japan's Nippon Telegraph and
Telephone (NTT)  9432.T  plans to boost its renewable energy
capacity manifolds to 7.5 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 as the
telecommunications giant steps up its energy business to drive
growth, its spokesman said on Tuesday.
    The move, which was reported earlier by Nikkei, comes as
companies step up investment in green energy to tackle climate
change and may boost competitions in Japan's electricity market
which has been liberalised since 2016.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2E62EO
    "NTT group aims to boost renewable power capacity from 300
megawatts now to 7.5 gigawatts by 2030 as backup energy sources
for our communication hubs and other users in case of natural
disasters, and raise the ratio of renewable power in our energy
consumption to 30% by 2030 from 4.5% now," NTT spokesman Yuhei
Ogaki said.
    Most of additional capacity will come from solar and
offshore wind power.
    NTT has no plan to build its own electric power supply
networks across the nation to compete with the existing
utilities, but it intends to strengthen its energy business,
especially in decentralization energy infrastructure, he said.
    NTT Anode Energy, the group's energy unit formed last year,
has said it would spend 100 billion yen ($928 million) per year
through 2025 to reinforce renewable energy and energy
infrastructure.
    NTT Anode Energy and trading house Mitsubishi Corp  8058.T 
said in a joint statement on Tuesday they would collaborate in
renewable energy and energy management services using electric
vehicles and storage batteries.
    They plan to install storage batteries at NTT's
communication hubs and some convenient stores of Lawson
 2651.T , which is 50% owned by Mitsubishi, to see if their
infrastructure could provide cheaper electricity.
    NTT Anode, together with Tokyo Electric Power Company
Holdings  9501.T  and others, unveiled a plan in April to build
an emergency backup power system and a power supply network
using direct current power transmission in Chiba, near Tokyo.

($1 = 107.7400 yen)

 (Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
 ((Yuka.Obayashi@thomsonreuters.com; +813-4563-2761;))