Commencement of Commercial Operation Project of Japan’s 1st Hydrogen-Single-Fuel Power Plant
～Notice Concerning a Joint Business Development Study in the Hydrogen Business～

erex Co., Ltd.
Hydrogen Technology, Inc.

erex Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director and President: Hitoshi Honna; hereinafter “erex”) is pleased to announce that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Hydrogen Technology, Inc. (Head Office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director and President: Yasuhiro Yamamoto; hereinafter “HT”) regarding a joint business development study (hereinafter “the Project”) for the power generation using hydrogen-single-fuel combustion and the supply of hydrogen to fuel cell vehicles (hereinafter “FCVs”).

Note

The world is rapidly accelerating its efforts to realize a decarbonized society. The basic policy of Japan’s energy policy is to achieve self-sufficiency rate (Energy Security), economic efficiency (Economic Efficiency), and environmental adaptability (Environment) at the same time, with Safety as the major premise. Especially, hydrogen, which has the potential to solve both environmental adaptability and self-sufficiency rate, can be produced from primary energy sources other than petroleum, and is attracting attention as a clean energy source with high energy efficiency and with no CO2 emissions at the stage of use.

The Project is to verify and to tackle a wide range of hydrogen applications, such as power generation and fuel cell vehicle business, using safe and inexpensive hydrogen production by a new technology developed by HT, which extracts “hydrogen” at ambient temperature and low pressure using only “water” and “catalyst derived from rocks”.

As the first step, erex is constructing a 300kW level of hydrogen power plant in the service area of TEPCO Power Grid, aiming to start the commercial operations within FY2021, to demonstrate that HT’s technology can continuously produce enough hydrogen for hydrogen-single-fuel power generation. In the future, erex plans to start the development of an even larger hydrogen-single-fuel power plant and promote the verification of hydrogen supply volume and cost reduction, etc. At the same time, erex plans to consider entering the business of supplying hydrogen to FCVs. The Project will be the 1st hydrogen-single-fuel power plant in Japan to be operated commercially.

Based on the principle of “opening up the future with new ideas and the power to act,” erex has set forth its “2030 Vision ~ for the realization of a sustainable society ~ to be a pioneer in the new era of electric power with renewable energy at its core”. In addition to the biomass power generation business, erex has positioned hydrogen as one of the important environmental energy sources for the future, and will continue to work on the development of energy-related businesses in a diversified manner. In addition, erex will continue to accelerate its efforts to realize a hydrogen society in order to make a significant contribution to achieving the long-term goal of “Becoming carbon neutral by 2050”, which is related to climate change mitigation, and to the realization of a “sustainable energy cycle”.

Attachment
Project outline

For inquiries regarding this case, please contact
erex Co., Ltd. IR&PR Dept.   TEL: 81-3-3243-1167 E-mail:pr.info@erex.co.jp
Hydrogen Technology, Inc. TEL: 81-555-22-0772 E-mail:support@eh-tech.co.jp