Japan’s Electric Power Development Co is to close a number of older, less-efficient coal-fired power plants by 2030, according to the company’s president, in line with national government measures to accelerate closures of inefficient plants. Likely closures include plants in Takasago, Matsushima, and Takehara, though no final decisions have yet been made; in total. J-Power has 8.4 GW of coal-fired power generation capacity across seven plants, and in April this year set a net-zero carbon emissions goal for 2050, targeting carbon capture and storage, renewables, nuclear and hydrogen. J-Power President Toshifumi Watanabe has said of the plan that it is “challenging, but we will brush up our technology to make it happen”.