POWER April 2021 - 13

GLOBAL MONITOR
" additional mine rehabilitation costs. " According to the commission,
of the total €4.35 billion, €2.6 billion are earmarked
for the RWE lignite installations located in the Rheinland
area and €1.75 billion for the LEAG installations in the Lausitz
region. In November 2020, the European Commission found
that the competitive tender mechanism introduced by Germany
to compensate its hard coal-fired power plants and
lignite plants below 150 MW for early phaseout promotes
EU climate objectives.
J-POWER Mulls Generation Profile Shakeup. Japan's
Electric Power Development Co. Ltd., which operates under
the brand name J-POWER, on Feb. 26 unveiled a " Blue Mission
2050 " plan that seeks to realize a carbon-neutral and
hydrogen society by 2050. The company will target a carbon
dioxide emissions reduction of 40% by 2030 by replacing
coal-fired power plants with hydrogen power. Thermal power
currently makes up about 36.9% of J-POWER's portfolio.
Transformational projects will include Osaki's CoolGen Project,
which is conducting a demonstration of a system that
produces hydrogen from coal and could be ready for commercialization
as early as 2025. J-POWER is also participating
in a pilot test project to gasify brown coal in Australia and
transport it to Japan. J-POWER's plan also entails expanding
its renewable energy capacity, mostly hydro, by 1 GW
by March 2026. It also plans to start up the Ohma nuclear
power plant in April 2028. Construction is continuing on the
ABWR despite a series of delays.
French Regulator Approves Operation of 900-MWe Reactors
Beyond 40 Years. French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN)
on Feb. 23 set the conditions for the continued operation of
EDF's 900-MWe reactors beyond 40 years and highlighted an
" open prospect " of keeping them open for 50 years. EDF's
32 900-MWe reactors, which came online between 1977 and
1988, are the oldest reactors in France, and their fourth periodic
safety review " is of particular importance because the service
life hypothesis adopted at the design stage was 40 years, "
explained ASN. Continued operation beyond 40 years required
design study updates and equipment replacements, as well as
major safety improvements.
IEA: Global Carbon Emissions Rebounded Above PrePandemic
Levels. Global energy-related carbon dioxide
emissions were 2% higher in December 2020 than in the
same month a year earlier, data released by the International
Energy Agency (IEA) in March suggests. After hitting a low in
April, global emissions rebounded strongly and rose above
2019 levels in December, the agency said. Major economies
led the resurgence as a pick-up in economic activity pushed
energy demand higher and significant policy measures to
boost clean energy were lacking. Many economies are now
seeing emissions climbing above pre-crisis levels. The 2020
trends played out as more countries made pledges to reach
net-zero emissions by mid-century. However, the trends underscore
the challenge of curbing emissions while ensuring
economic growth and energy security, the IEA said.
Reliance, JERA Reach Financial Close for Bangladesh
Gas Plant. Indian firm Reliance Power and Japan's
JERA have achieved financial closure of their jointly developed
745-MW natural gas combined cycle power project in
Meghnaghat, Bangladesh-the first phase of a total 3 GW
of gas-fired generation planned for the South Asian country.
The project's announcement follows closely on news that
the country will scrap nine new coal projects, owing in part
to higher costs for imported coal and a distaste for coal by
April 2021 | POWER
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13
project lenders. But gas plants in the region have proven
risky, too. In 2019, Reliance reached a debt-restructuring
deal with the U.S. Exim Bank for its Samalkot project in the
Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, which was ultimately shuttered
owing to a lack of gas supplies. The company decided
to relocate the equipment from that project to Bangladesh,
under a partnership with JERA. The project's engineering,
procurement, and construction contractor is Samsung C&T
Corp. of South Korea.
KenGen Expanding Geothermal Know-How in East Africa.
Kenyan power company KenGen has snagged a $6 million contract
to drill three geothermal wells in Djibouti, marking the
third geothermal contract with other African nations in recent
years. Kenya, which is Africa's biggest geothermal producer,
has so far drilled more than 300 wells within the Olkaria field
in the Rift Valley. " As a country, we have a geothermal energy
potential of 10,000 MW along the Rift Valley with the resource
being harnessed in 23 sites, " said Kenya's Energy Cabinet Secretary
Charles Keter. In 2019, the company won a $52.9 million
contract to drill 12 geothermal wells in Ethiopia, and another
contract, worth $76 million, for consultancy services and drilling
wells. The nation has also developed partnerships with
Rwanda. In a November 2020 report, the International Renewable
Energy Agency highlighted East Africa's substantial geothermal
potential in the Rift System. But only about 900 MW
of installed geothermal electricity capacity exists in the region,
with power plants in Ethiopia and Kenya while other countries
are either at the surface exploration stage or exploration drilling
stage, it noted. ■
-Sonal Patel is POWER's senior associate editor.
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POWER April 2021

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