April 24th was a milestone for us at Climeon. Our, Climeon’s, first Heat Power system in a geothermal power plant in Japan has successfully been commissioned and is now producing electricity.
It was in 2018, that we won our first order in Japan. Since then, we have established a subsidiary in the country, begun the installation of two power plants, and now also put the first Heat Power system into operation.
We have reached a breakthrough in the Japanese market, now that the first power plant is up and running. The installation is located in Kyushu, where Climeon's Heat Power module is connected to an existing power plant and recovers geothermal waste heat.
We have had help from Breakthrough Energy Ventures in getting in touch with local investors at the highest level in the country. In March 2019, Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV),founded by Bill Gates, invested SEK 115 million in the financing company Baseload Capital, which is partly owned by Climeon. Before the collaboration started, both us at Climeon and BEV had separately looked into places with high energy needs, high electricity prices and where hot water, geothermal heat, was easy accessible. BEV, believed in geothermal energy and we, at Climeon, had the technology. That’s how and why our collaboration started.
Now, when the first power plant in Japan is running, we also unlock Baseload's green bond which makes it possible for us to build even more power plants.
This is an incredibly important milestone for Climeon. Japan is one of the toughest geographical markets to enter. We are proud that we, together with Baseload Power Japan and Baseload Capital, managed to get a power plant up and running this fast, compared to how long it typically takes in Japan.
Even though Covid-19 has hit hard and we have had to adapt our methods of working, we still managed to get the Climeon HP module up and running. We had staff already in Japan before the pandemic struck with full force and now, when the power plant is built, much of the job is about trimming the system, which we, to a fairly large extent, can do from a distance, in Kista.
I am proud, humbled, excited and impressed by all the work done by the team in Japan. Many hours, lots of brain power, hard work, support from Climeon in Kista, and we pulled it off, together.
