Eneos Holdings Inc, Japan’s largest refiner, plans to buy Japan Renewable Energy for $1.8 billion to expand its low-carbon business, joining a growing list of major global corporations shifting away from climate-altering fossil fuels. Eneos will purchase Japan Renewable Energy from Goldman Sachs and Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC in order to achieve net-zero emissions by 2040.
As per a company statement, the deal marks the first big purchase of a renewables firm by a major Japanese oil company thereby assisting it to fulfil its goal of having more than 1,000 MW of renewable energy in Japan and abroad by March 2023. The agreement does signal Eneos’ intention to begin transitioning away from fossil fuels. Japan’s official renewable energy ambitions are set to roughly double. Eneos holds 50 per cent of Japan’s gasoline and other fuels sector but its client base has been declining for years owing to population decline and changing tastes.
Japan Renewable Energy was founded in 2012. It currently operates 419 MW of solar, onshore wind, and biomass power projects with another 410 MW of projects under construction.
