Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. announced that it has entered into an agreement with Eavor Technologies Inc. to acquire shares in the company through its wholly owned subsidiary Chubu Electric Power Company Netherlands B.V. Eavor is a Canadian geothermal startup company. Chubu anticipates completing the transaction shortly pending various procedures.
This is the first investment in a geothermal energy company overseas for Chubu.
Eavor is a Canadian global startup company that leads the world in research and development of closed loop geothermal technology (Note 1), with the aim of full commercialization.
The Eavor geothermal technology involves circulating water in a closed loop underground to extract heat efficiently even in areas where hot water or steam cannot be sufficiently produced through conventional geothermal development. Therefore, this geothermal technology can be applied to development in a wide range of areas, and it avoids the risk of project development problems due to a shortage of hot water or steam underground.
In addition, geothermal power generation using this technology can function not only as a base load operation but also as a dispatchable (load-following & balancing) power source that stores heat underground during low demand and converts the stored heat into electricity during high demand. For these reasons, Eavor’s closed loop technology is expected to be a game-changer in the energy industry in the future.
Through this investment in Eavor, we will acquire knowledge of the geothermal business and seek the expansion of our investment opportunities of overseas projects with Eavor. At the same time, we intend to consider the future application of this technology in Japan.
See related article: GE Renewable Energy and Green Power Investment To Develop Onshore Wind Farm in Japan
Mr. Hiroki Sato, Senior Executive Managing Officer at Chubu, commented: “A technology such as this is a true game-changer and represents a potential transformation to the world’s energy stack, addresses climate change as well as energy autonomy and independence issues simultaneously. Chubu is excited to be working with Eavor and supporting a solution to some of the world’s most intractable problems. This is an important strategic step for Chubu, fully aligned with our Management Vision 2.0 which defines Chubu’s efforts to achieve sustainable growth”.
John Redfern, President & CEO at Eavor, stated that: “The opportunity and plan for global deployment of this technology requires partners like Chubu. The involvement of CHUBU as one of our partners and Board members represents a fantastic endorsement of our technology, its commercialization and global scalability. Ultimately, when it lives up to its potential, Eavor’s solution is not only the missing element needed to fully decarbonize the world’s energy supply, it is also an opportunity for localized economies to obtain resilient, independent, autonomous, domestic energy resources. This changes everything.”
In Chubu’s global business, we will contribute to the realization of a carbon-free society and further increase earnings by optimally combining the four domains of (i) “green” business centered on renewable energy, (ii) “blue” business in relation to de-carbonization, (iii) “retail, power transmission and distribution, and new services” and (iv) “new technologies”.
Source: Chubu Electric Power