Restaurant Chain in Japan Enters Renewable Energy Market

Watami Co., a leading restaurant chain in Japan, announced on March 16, 2012, that the construction of a wind turbine, nicknamed "Fumin," was completed in Nikaho City in Akita Prefecture and went into full-scale operation. The company, working with the Konoura Citizen's Wind Power Project, a power producer and supplier (PPS), helped finance the construction of the windmill as part of its efforts to enter the wind power market and thus increase its use of renewable energy and reduce its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

The turbine has an estimated annual power output of about 4.5 million kilowatt-hours, approximately three percent of the electricity used by the entire Watami group. That translates into a CO2 reduction of about two percent. The group will purchase all of the wind power as well as the environmental value generated by the turbine for consumption by its subsidiaries. This is the first project of its kind by a restaurant chain in Japan.

Watami aims to shift all the electricity used by the group to natural energy sources by 2020.

Posted: 2012/07/05 06:00:15 AM