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Kamaishi Works power station

Coal power plant in Iwate, Japan. Approximate location 39.2688, 141.8766.

CoalIwateJapan

Kamaishi Works power station is a 149 MW coal power station in Iwate, Japan. It is operated by Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 186,462 homes (estimated). It ranks #189 of 659 Japan power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 2000, it is around 26 years old — long-established. In context, coal supplies about 32.1% of Japan's electricity; the national grid averages 477 gCO₂/kWh (32.7% low-carbon) (2025).

149MW installed capacity
186,462homes powered (est.)
2000commissioned (~26 yrs)

Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1020048.

~652,620 t CO₂/yr (estimated) — in everyday terms

This facility's annual emissions are roughly equivalent to:

152,126passenger cars driven for a year
85,110homes' yearly energy use
10,877,000tree seedlings grown 10 years to absorb it

Estimated, not measured: from installed capacity at a typical 50% load factor × a typical coal emission factor (~1000 g CO₂/kWh, IPCC AR5 / US EIA). Actual emissions depend on plant efficiency and running hours.Equivalencies via US EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies.

Capacity vs largest coal plants in Japan

Hekinan power station: 4,100 MW4kHekinan po…J-POWER Tachibana-wan power station: 2,100 MW2kJ-POWER Ta…Haramachi power station: 2,000 MW2kHaramachi …Hitachinaka power station: 2,000 MW2kHitachinak…Matsuura power station: 2,000 MW2kMatsuura p…Shinchi power station: 2,000 MW2kShinchi po…Maizuru power station: 1,800 MW2kMaizuru po…Nakoso power station: 1,700 MW2kNakoso pow…

Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).

Owner

Operated by Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal. All plants by this company →

Local climate & thermal context

This coal plant burns coal to raise high-pressure steam that spins a turbine-generator. It sits in a temperate oceanic climate (Köppen Cfb) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 39.3°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.

10.3°Cannual mean temp
2,995heating degree-days (base 18°C)
206cooling degree-days (base 18°C)
161 melevation

Monthly mean temperature

J: 0 °CJF: 0 °CFM: 2 °CMA: 8 °CAM: 13 °CMJ: 16 °CJJ: 20 °CJA: 22 °CAS: 18 °CSO: 13 °CON: 8 °CND: 3 °CD22 °C

Heating degree-days here run 22% above the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.

Climate heat-demand index: 62/100 — this site sits in the mid third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.

In colder climates, uninsulated hot equipment (boilers, turbines, valves, steam lines) loses proportionally more heat to ambient air — exactly the loss Inzonex modular insulation is designed to cut.

Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.

How it compares & nearby plants

The #43 largest coal power plant of 70 in Japan by capacity.

Japan has 70 coal power plants in this dataset, together about 43,127 MW of capacity.

Nearby power plants

Location

Coordinates 39.2688, 141.8766 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.

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