Japan Beyond Coal database update:

In January 2024, Chugoku Electric Power’s Shimonoseki Power Station Unit 1 (coal, 175MW) was decommissioned. At the same time, Unit 2 (heavy oil, 400MW) was also shut down. See Chugoku Electric Power press release here (PDF).

The number of operating power plants are now as follows:

Operating: 171 Units
Planned (including under construction): 1 Units
Retired: 5 Units

・Fire breaks out at JERA’s Taketoyo Power Station
On January 31, around 3:14 p.m., a fire broke out on a conveyor belt (transporting coal and woody biomass) at JERA’s Taketoyo Power Station in Taketoyo-cho, Chita-gun, Aichi Prefecture. The fire was extinguished approximately five hours later (after 8 p.m.). Unit 5 (coal + wood pellets, 1,070MW) was shut down at 3:29 p.m. due to the fire.

・Kyushu Electric Power’s Matsuura Power Station Unit1
In a New Year interview, Mr. Kazuhiro Ikebe, President of Kyushu Electric Power, expressed his intention to continue operation of Matsuura Power Station Unit 1 (coal, 700MW) with a “low-carbon emission strategy”. In 2023, Matsuura Power Station Unit 2 (1,000MW) has been undergoing a demonstration test of ammonia co-firing with coal (co-firing ratio of about 0.1%). In the same interview, he stated that the Karita Power Station Unit New 1 (coal, 360 MW) is scheduled to be shutdown in July.

*The full database can be downloaded in Excel format on this page.
* Click here (PDF) to download a summary of Japan’s coal plant data.