Japan’s biggest power company JERA on Thursday said one of its plants would replace 30% of its LNG use with hydrogen in the fiscal year of April 2025-March 2026 after receiving a grant from New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). The move will be the first hydrogen use for electricity generation at a large-scale commercial gas-fired power plant in Japan.
Under the project, JERA will replace a portion of its LNG use with hydrogen in a pilot project from October. The company will then evaluate operational and environmental characteristics from burning hydrogen to generate power. In the following stage, JERA will set up hydrogen supply facilities and combustors capable of co-burning LNG and hydrogen in its gas turbines.
A draft of Japan’s Strategic Energy Plan indicates that the country plans to use hydrogen/ammonia as 1% of its electricity generation fuel mix by FY 2030-2031. By that time, Japan also aims to introduce 30% co-burning of hydrogen at gas-fired power plants and 20% co-burning of ammonia at coal-fired power plants. NEDO will distribute the government’s ¥2 trillion ($18.2 billion) green innovation fund over the next ten years to speed up the country’s energy transition.
