Mitsubishi, Entergy Plan ‘Green’ Collaboration

Mitsubishi Power and Entergy Corp., an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations, said they will collaborate to bring decarbonization projects to Entergy’s utility businesses in the U.S.

The companies said the relationship will foster collaboration on project development and technology solutions to limit carbon emissions from electric power generation.

Entergy said it engaged with Mitsubishi Power because of the company’s demonstrated ability to provide innovative total solutions leveraging multiple technologies to reach decarbonization goals. Mitsubishi Power is a first mover in hydrogen-enabled gas turbine and long- and short-term storage solutions. It also provides standard integrated green hydrogen packages. The Hydaptive and Hystore packages optimize integration across renewables, energy storage, and hydrogen-enabled gas turbine power plants, which all work together to create and incorporate green hydrogen.

The companies said they will focus on:

• Developing hydrogen-capable gas turbine combined cycle facilities
• Developing green hydrogen production, storage and transportation facilities
• Creating nuclear-supplied electrolysis facilities with energy storage
• Developing utility scale battery storage systems
• Enabling economic growth through partnerships with the Entergy utility customers

The collaboration will focus on Entergy’s utility businesses in Arkansas, Louisiana, including separate jurisdiction of New Orleans, Mississippi and Texas.

In 2001, Entergy was the first U.S. electric utility to commit to limiting carbon dioxide emissions, a goal it enhanced and extended through 2020. Entergy announced in March 2019 that it would further address climate risk by lowering its carbon emission rate to half of year-2000 levels by 2030.

“For two decades, sustainability has been a priority for Entergy,” said Paul Hinnenkamp, Entergy’s executive vice president and chief operating officer. “ We have pledged to conduct our business in a manner that is environmentally, socially and economically sustainable that will benefit all our stakeholders. New technologies and innovative solutions to the challenges posed by climate change present opportunities for us to significantly decrease carbon emissions from our generation portfolio while maintaining low rates. We are pleased to welcome Mitsubishi Power as a collaborative partner in developing strategies to integrate these new technologies and solutions that support us achieving our environmental and customer commitments.”

This year Mitsubishi Power announced technologies representing years of development to enable the transition to a low-carbon then carbon-free grid. The company announced the sale of its first hydrogen-capable advanced class gas turbines in March for the Intermountain Power Plant, which plans to transition from coal to a mixture of 30 percent hydrogen with natural gas by 2025, ramping to 100% green hydrogen fuel by 2045. Last month the company announced a 200 MW lithium-ion battery storage project in Texas, its largest to date. This month Mitsubishi Power announced the world’s first green hydrogen standard packages for power balancing and energy storage.

“In recent years we have supported Entergy on three large power projects that the utility executed on schedule and on budget as part of a multi-year project to modernize the power generation fleet and voluntarily reduce carbon emissions,” said Paul Browning, Mitsubishi Power America’s president and CEO. “Now, we’re proud to work with Entergy on the next phase of decarbonization. At Mitsubishi Power, our mission is to provide power generation and storage solutions to our customers that enable them to affordably and reliably combat climate change and advance human prosperity. We look forward to extending our long-term collaboration with Entergy.”