Toshiba News

International energy companies, from Germany's RWE to Spain's Iberdrola, are urging Japan to beef up offshore wind power auctions and make investments more attractive, amid soaring installation costs as competition for suppliers grows worldwide.Although desperate to ease its heavy dependence on energy imports from the Middle East and Russia, Japan is coming late to offshore wind, but some industry players say it is taking a more cautious approach that puts it at a disadvantage."It's a global race and we can't look at it in isolation…

With travel and tourism nearing pre-2020 levels, and transit systems benefiting from a return to work, passenger vessels have seen renewed activity. In its year-end review, John Groundwater, Executive Director of the Passenger Vessel Association (PVA), which advocates for the sector in Washington, D.C. wrote: “As we are nearing the end of the calendar year, we are delighted to report that our industry, and our members, are reporting far and wide that they have experienced very…

A newly announced zero-emissions electric ferry scheduled for launch in 2024 will be the first to service New York City as the marine industry continues to make strides to decarbonize its operations.The high-speed passenger vessel is the result of a partnership between local operator New York Cruise Lines and Stockholm-based Green City Ferries AB (GCF). It will be operated by New York Cruise Lines subsidiary New York Water Taxi on the Hudson River between Brooklyn and Manhattan.The newbuild, a Beluga24 catamaran developed by GCF, will have a capacity of 147 passengers and 28 bicycles.

Echandia, a developer of energy solutions for maritime electrification, has entered into an agreement to deepen its collaboration with Toshiba. The partnership agreement will focus on the development of fuel-cell technology combined with batteries to accelerate electrification of the maritime sector.The two companies have a long history of collaboration. Historically, Echandia has built its Lithium Titanium Oxide (LTO) based battery systems based on the Toshiba rechargeable LTO battery cell SCiBTM.As demand for electrification of deep-sea and larger vessels builds up…

Forsee Power said it is now offering its Pulse 2.5 high-power battery module in a DNV-certified version for the marine sector.Harsh weather conditions at sea require rugged batteries, with solutions compatible with water, condensation, and humidity. As a result, the guarantees in terms of design and safety required by the classification society DNV are very high. This approval allows the various players in the sector such as Forsee Power to have a guarantee on the quality and…

Echandia, a Swedish developer of battery and fuel cell systems, announced it now has its battery system, based on LTO technology, type approved by Bureau Veritas as electrification continues to make inroads in the larger boat, workboat and ferry segments."Echandia is the only company in the world to have a certified LTO battery system for marine use in tugboats. It is a breakthrough for safe LTO technology and as tugboats and ferries in local traffic increasingly become battery-powered…

From 2015 to present an estimated 250 incidents related to electric hoverboard fires have been recorded according to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission. The same commission reports that 83,000 Toshiba laptop batteries were recalled in 2017 due to fire and safety concerns.In January 2017 a NYC garbage truck was the source of a neighborhood surprise when a Lithium ion battery exploded in the compactor of the truck. Luckily no one was injured.According to a study conducted by the National Fire Data Center branch of the U.S.

The provider of energy industry solutions Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation (Toshiba ESS) announced that the company has delivered a mobile 30kW hydrogen fuel cell system, which volume per unit power output is reduced to 1/3 compared to the stationary fuel cell systems, to a fuel cell ship.The fuel cell ship, which passed the Temporary Navigation Permit Inspection of Japan Craft Inspection Organization on October 30, has started demonstrations of the verification by NREG Toshiba Building Corporation and Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology (TUMSAT).The newly mobile 30 kW pure hydrogen fuel cells system developed by Toshiba ESS will be available to install for vessels, railways and trucks. Hydrogen is used as fuel, allowing electricity to be generated without CO2.

The Japanese multinational Toshiba Corp said that it has completed the sale of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) operation in the United States to French oil giant Total SA, letting go of an asset it deems risky as it continues to restructure. Toshiba, which announced the deal in June, sold Toshiba America LNG Corp. (TAL) for $15 million Friday after judging that the plan to procure U.S.-made LNG for Japanese utilities was unlikely to achieve profitability as LNG prices have sunk.At the same time, Toshiba and Total also agreed that all contracts related to the LNG business entered into by Toshiba Group would either be transferred to Total or canceled…

Swedish power company Vattenfall and compatriot electric ferry propulsion systems and marine consultancy platform Echandia Marine cooperate on electric ferry with superfast charging.Vattenfall and Echandia Marine have developed a new solution for electric ferries that is designed to minimise emissions and noise and at the same time lower operational and maintenance costs and provide superfast charging.The systems are installed on E/S Movitz that operates in central Stockholm and can be fully charged within 10 minutes with up to 500 kW charging power.The companies have together developed a new concept that can contribute to a more sustainable…

French energy giant Total takes over the liquefied natural gas business of Japanese outfit Toshiba's Freeport LNG train tolling agreement and gains $800 million.The French oil and gas company will is paying $15 million for the shares in the Texan assets, the firms said. Toshiba will also pay Total $815 million to take over all the contracts linked to the business, Total added."It includes a 20-year tolling agreement for 2.2 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of LNG from Freeport LNG train 3 in Texas and the corresponding gas transportation agreements on the pipelines feeding the terminal. Train 3 of the Freeport LNG plant is expected to start commercial operations by Q2 2020…

Freeport LNG, a privately held U.S. liquefied natural gas company, said on Thursday it pushed back the projected start date for its $13 billion export terminal under construction in Texas by about nine months to around Sept. 1, 2019.Freeport LNG now expects the first liquefaction train to enter service around Sept. 1, 2019, with the second and third trains seen in service around Jan. 1 and May 1, 2020, respectively, said Zdenek Gerych, a spokesman at Freeport.Previously, the three…

Japanese power generation, industrial and marine electrical systems specialist Nishishiba Electric Co. Ltd., part of the Toshiba Corp., has entered in to a service agent agreement with UAE based marine and industrial engineering company NICO International. NICO International will be the authorized service representative for all the electrical power generating products manufactured by Nishishiba in the Middle East region. “Considering the market trends and NICO’s vision of being the best overall marine and industrial solutions provider, this partnership with Nishishiba Electric Co. Ltd.

Helen Delich Bentley, a former journalist and a U.S. Republican congresswoman from Maryland who gained global attention by smashing Japanese goods to protest Tokyo's trade policies, died over the weekend at the age of 92, officials said. Bentley upset a longtime Democratic congressman to win a U.S. House of Representatives seat in 1984, a year in which Ronald Reagan's landslide victory in the presidential race helped bring several new faces from the party to Congress. The five-term congresswoman was a staunch advocate for the port of Baltimore and the state's maritime industry.

France hopes to boost its nuclear industry with a biennial exhibition modeled on the Paris Air Show, although it does not expect reactor orders to pile up as fast as airplane contracts. To be held in the same Le Bourget venue as the airshow, the October 14-16 World Nuclear Exhibition (WNE) expects some 7,000 visitors will visit stands representing nearly 500 French and foreign nuclear industry companies, the organisers said on Thursday. "Obviously, it would be an illusion to expect to sign as many nuclear reactor contracts there as the airline industry does at the airshow," WNE chief Gerard Kottmann told reporters. At the 2013 Paris Air Show…

The Japanese technology firms are using their experience in saving energy and in cloud technology to help farmers cope with changes in climate, cheaper imports and declining labor. Panasonic, Fujitsu and others looking for an opportunity in a niche market to offset the decline in demand for consumer electronics, are working in greenhouses and controlled by automatic sensors to ensure constant conditions to produce high quality vegetables all year fields . Fujitsu says its agricultural system Akisai cloud means users can sit behind a desk in Tokyo, or even in New York, while cultivating vegetables in Shizuoka, using a tablet to control sprinklers, fans and heaters in response to changes in the temperature and humidity detected by the sensors in fields or greenhouses.

India is hoping to win Japanese backing for a nuclear energy pact during a visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and lure investment into its $85 billion market while addressing Japan's concern about doing business with a nuclear-armed country. India has been pushing for an agreement with Japan on the lines of a 2008 deal with the United States under which India was allowed to import U.S. nuclear fuel and technology without giving up its military nuclear programme. But Japan wants explicit Indian guarantees not to conduct nuclear tests and more intrusive inspections of its nuclear facilities to ensure that spent fuel is not diverted to make bombs.

According to Bloomberg.com, Asian stocks rose for the first time in four days, led by financial shares, after China Merchants Bank Co. doubled its profit and Citic Securities Co. said net income jumped more than fivefold. China Construction Bank Corp. climbed the most in two weeks in Hong Kong. Fubon Financial Holding Co. led Taiwanese financial companies higher after the Economic Daily News reported they may be allowed to buy stakes in China's banks. Reliance Industries Ltd. paced gains among energy shares after saying it may join rivals to seek oil in India. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 0.1 percent to 153.10 as of 7:17 p.m. in Tokyo, following a three-day, 3.4 percent drop. About six stocks climbed for every five that retreated.

Russian ice breakers. Contrary to the afore mentioned opinion, I believe that not only are selected-route nuclear powered commercial vessels good for the marine industry but they also offer the world the most environmentally friendly and potentially the most economical and efficient way of shipping trans-ocean cargo. Although the Fukushima Daiichi disaster was a disaster of major proportions, we must not forget that it was initiated by a much more deadly and destructive disaster; a tsunami caused by a magnitude 9.0 Richter scale underwater earthquake. The nuclear disaster that occurred at the Fukushima Daiichi complex was not caused by inherent problems with the reactor…

The high, wide and heavy cargo arrived at Charleston's Columbus Street Terminal, and is being shipped to the South Carolina Electric & Gas Company's (SCE&G) nuclear plant expansion 30 miles from the state capital of Columbia. Crews offloaded a large amount of specialty cargo from the 10,500-ton HR Recommendation, operated by BBC Chartering. From there, the cargo moved by rail and truck to SCE&G's project site. A US$23-million improvement project completed last year at the 135-acre Columbus Street Terminal to enhance the facility's mix of on-dock rail, storage and heavylift capabilities. The terminal handles a variety of non-container freight, including vehicles, other rolling stock, breakbulk, heavylift and project cargo, including power generation equipment.