Convention Facility in Yokohama Reduces Electricity Costs by Generating Power from Waste

Image by Tarourashima Some Rights Reserved.

Pacifico Convention Plaza Yokohama announced on March 27, 2017, that starting April 2, they have been providing electricity generated using waste from the convention facility to Rinko park, which is adjacent to and managed by Pacifico Yokohama. Pacifico Yokohama is located in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, and is one of the largest MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions/events) facilities in Japan.

Pacifico Yokohama ranks at the top in the number of international and academic conferences, meetings, exhibitions and other events held in Japan. It is also committed to reducing its environmental impact to make the facility more sustainable. Pacifico Yokohama aims to fully grasp the amount of waste collected from the facility (124 tons recorded in fiscal 2015) and endeavors to recycle 100% of the waste. As a result of these efforts, more than 90% of the waste has been recycled over the past five years. The city of Yokohama has recognized the facility as a leading 3R (reduce, reuse, recycle) business.

JFE Kankyo Corporation collects the waste from the convention facility and transports the waste to its industrial waste treatment facility to incinerate and generate electricity. Urban Energy Corporation, a JFE group company, buys the generated electricity, amounting to about 300,000 kWh annually, and supplies it to Rinko Park in the Pacifico Yokohama convention complex. Thus, Pacifico Convention Plaza Yokohama is eligible for an electricity cost reduction that corresponds to the amount of waste from which power is generated, through a discount scheme called sodenwari in which Urban Energy Corporation discounts electricity charges when the power generated from waste is supplied to the facility where the waste was collected.