The Japanese government will withdraw financing for two coal-fired power plant projects to accelerate the global phase-out of coal. The country will stop providing loans for the 2 GW Indramayu plant expansion in Indonesia and the 1.2 GW Matarbari phase 2 coal expansion in Bangladesh. Both projects have not entered construction.
The 2 GW expansion (2 x 1,000 MW) of the 990 MW Indramayu coal-fired power plant in Indonesia would have consisted of two supercritical units, with the first one expected to enter operations in 2030. The project would have been owned and operated by the Indonesian state-owned power utility PT PLN (Persero).
The 1.2 GW expansion (2 x 600 MW) of the 1.2 GW Matarbari coal-fired power plant in Bangladesh, scheduled to be commissioned in 2028, was developed by a Japanese consortium of Sumitomo Corporation, Toshiba Corporation, and IHI Corporation under an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the state-owned energy group Coal Power Generation Company Bangladesh. The project was supported by a US$2.3bn loan from JICA (Japan International Corporation Agency).
The G7 agreed in May 2021 to stop international financing of coal projects, in line with the Paris agreement goals. Japan initially opposed that decision, claiming that “ongoing cases” (such as the Matarbari and Indramayu plants) were exempt, but subsequently decided to tighten conditions for overseas coal projects.
Interested in Power Plants?
Enerdata has developed a market research service to screen, monitor and analyse the development of power generation assets.
Power Plant Tracker offers an interactive database and a powerful search engine covering power plants worldwide – including both installed and planned capacities for renewables and fossil fuels.