Photo/Illutration Taketoyo thermal power station in Aichi Prefecture (Hisashi Naito)

A state-of-the-art coal-fired power plant that will soon go online in the seaside town of Taketoyo in Aichi Prefecture is expected to help alleviate Japan’s electricity supply shortage.

But the move to power up such a major carbon emitter as other major industrialized countries push toward decarbonization has been criticized as a step in the wrong direction.

Jera Co. announced on July 14 that it will start the No. 5 unit of its Taketoyo thermal power station on Aug. 5.

The new unit boasts the highest level of electricity-generating capacity among thermal power stations in Japan, with a maximum output of 1.07 gigawatts, which is almost the same as that of a nuclear power reactor.

Masato Ishimura, head of the new power station, said at a briefing session held in Taketoyo on July 14 that it “will significantly contribute to the stable provision (of electricity).”

The government has called on the public and businesses across the country to conserve electricity between July and September, the first such appeal in seven years.

In late June, it warned people in areas served by Tokyo Electric Power Co. to conserve energy as a precautionary measure against power outages.

The electricity shortage is expected to become even more severe in winter.

One of the causes is a decline in the number of thermal power plants, which generate more than 70 percent of the electricity in Japan.

Major electricity companies have suspended or closed a series of thermal power plants that were aging or had become unprofitable.

According to the ministry of trade and industry, thermal power plants with a total generating capacity of 18.52 gigawatts were shuttered from fiscal 2017 to fiscal 2021.

The Taketoyo thermal power station used to generate electricity by burning oil with three boilers. Jera finalized the plan to build the new unit in 2015, then demolished the three aging units, built a new large unit over four years and finally gave it a test run in January.

The coal plant will now emit 70 percent more CO2 annually than it used to.

Even though coal is cheaper, the thermal plant has been criticized for flying in the face of the government’s push toward decarbonization by 2050, since burning coal emits an enormous amount of CO2.

The company was only able to start construction of the new unit after announcing that 17 percent of its fuel would be wooden biomass to cut down on its CO2 emissions.

At around the same time, a series of new coal power plants were greenlit to be built across Japan, as electricity companies were finding it difficult to determine when they could restart their nuclear power plants.

It is not the only sign that Japan is behind the pack at efforts to become carbon neutral.

At the Group of Seven summit in Germany in June, European countries and Japan were at odds over whether their joint statement should clearly say when they will end coal-power generation.

The statement said they will phase-out coal power, but it conspicuously did not set a date.

Although Japan has been demolishing its aging coal power stations, it has not decided to do away with them altogether.

The government has set a goal, though, of limiting the share of coal in Japan’s supply mix to 19 percent by fiscal 2030, which is lower than its ratio of 31 percent in fiscal 2020.

(This article was written by Hisashi Naito and Shiki Iwasawa.)

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