New ESCO Service Guarantees Reduced CO2 Emissions

Japan Facility Solutions (JFS), an energy saving company (ESCO) jointly established by Tokyo Electric Power Company (Japan's major electric utility) and Mitsubishi Corporation (Japan's major trading company), announced in December 2007 that they have added a new ESCO service that guarantees reduced emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), making JFS a double-assurance ESCO service provider. ESCOs provide clients with comprehensive services designed to boost the energy efficiency of their equipment; as remuneration they receive a portion of the profits created by conserving energy. JFS will now compensate their clients for a failure to attain a CO2 reduction goal by providing them with CO2 emission credits through a contract with Mitsubishi.

Under its more conventional ESCO service, JFS has guaranteed a certain level of cost reduction through energy savings. In other words, the company has been covering the deficit in the event of a failure to fulfill the guaranteed cost cutback. However, their new double-assurance ESCO service also guarantees a quantified CO2 emission reduction. If the company fails to meet this commitment, they will make up for it by awarding their client an equivalent amount of CO2 emissions credits. Thus, the new service ensures that a client's energy-saving project will achieve its CO2 reduction target.

The Meiji Pharmaceutical University's ESCO project will be the first to benefit from this new service, starting in April 2008. This project is subsidized by the Ministry of the Environment under its Japan's Voluntary Emissions Trading Scheme. The University will install energy-saving equipment under the ESCO service contract (and replace its existing heat source system) for its entire Kiyose campus, in Tokyo. An approximately 14 percent CO2 emission reduction is expected.

http://www.mitsubishicorp.com/en/index.html

Posted: 2008/02/15 05:16:16 PM
Japanese version