Contribute to regional society (energy and mobility)
Basic approach
Initiatives for regional revitalization and solving social issues
Idemitsu Kosan regards solving social issues as an important management issue and is working to co-create solutions that address local issues from eight perspectives, including not only energy but also the environment, transportation, industry, tourism, disaster prevention and crime prevention, welfare, and human resource development.
“Smart Yorozuya” concept, a base for mobility and community
"Smart Yorozuya" aims to evolve our brand, apollostation, into a "lifestyle support hub" that supports the people of each town and their enriched lives. Under the new slogan of "Bringing all kinds of a! to this town," apollostation will evolve into YOROZU (infinitely diverse) to meet the needs of each town and strive to become a supporter of energy and mobility. I'll go.
apollostation, which began rolling out in April 2021, will have all brand integration completed by the end of 2023, including approximately 1,300 lorries and logistics systems and approximately 6,000 service stations. Together with our important partners, dealers and transportation companies, we aim to make apollostation brand a brand that continues to be supported by our customers into the future.
Initiatives
Mobility services
Solving regional mobility issues by deploying mobility services
We will continue to work to solve social issues related to mobility by leveraging our strengths in the mobility field, which has supported motorization to date, and the strengths of our bases that have contributed to local communities through a stable supply of energy.
We will further expand the customer contact base that we have cultivated to date and respond to latent mobility needs by leveraging our SS network and vehicle maintenance technology, as well as developing a variety of mobility lineups, including ultra-compact EVs. In addition to developing and providing vehicles, we will also develop new subscription and car-sharing models, build digital platforms related to MaaS, and develop recycling systems.
Furthermore, in the future, we will develop new services that combine the electricity sales offered by apollostation with various mobility devices, build distributed energy that treats individual vehicles as storage batteries, and reuse and recycle systems for vehicles and batteries. We will work on developing mobility services.
As a specific example of our efforts, we have been conducting a car sharing demonstration using ultra-compact EVs in Okuma Town, Fukushima Prefecture since October 2022. In this demonstration, we are collaborating with Okuma Town and local dealers to meet the transportation needs of residents and visitors working on earthquake recovery efforts, and to provide a new means of transportation. We will continue to work with local governments and dealers to develop new services that are rooted in the needs of each region. Additionally, in June 2023, we began monitoring public road driving using a prototype ultra-compact EV ideta at our training facility, the Ishioka Training Center (Ibaraki Prefecture). We will continue development while identifying points for improvement.
Future concept using drones
In light of the Civil Aviation Law Amendment in December 2022, our company has begun joint development of domestically produced drones with Futaba Electronics Industries Co., Ltd. with the aim of provide for society. Using this, we will develop services closely tied to local areas through SS locations.
Currently, in addition to providing methods such as maintenance of the aircraft, we have begun considering business such as plant equipment inspection, agricultural use such as growth monitoring and pesticide spraying, and future logistics delivery. By leveraging the strengths of SS, we will develop a comprehensive drone business from aircraft development to operation and human resource development.
Community co-creation/life support
Tanegashima's carbon neutral initiative
As part of provide for society of mobility that contributes to the realization of carbon neutrality, we have converted some of the demand-based shared taxis "Donga Taxi" that cover the entire area of Nishinoomote City, Kagoshima Prefecture, into EVs and are operating them. As a joint demonstration project with Tanegashima Oil Co., Ltd. and Nishinoomote City, we are currently examining EV-related businesses, including the conversion of public transportation vehicles to EVs and the charging of public transportation EV vehicles at gas stations operated by Tanegashima Oil.
In addition, we are supplying electricity to the Minamitane Town Hall in Kagoshima Prefecture and Tanegashima Airport Terminal through a small-scale on-site PPA *1 and conducting a joint EV demonstration. This demonstration utilizes our company's IDEPASS *2 renewable energy power separation supply system and the Renewable Energy Choice *3 system, which allows customers who charge their EVs to choose whether they want renewable energy or other types of electricity. In addition, we have been conducting a demonstration since May 2023 in which EV rental cars provided by Nippon Rent-A-Car Service Co., Ltd. are charged at two quick chargers on the island and the charging fee is paid using a payment system provided by our group company.
Through these demonstration projects, our collaborating partners, Tanegashima Oil Co., Ltd. and our company, are working to promote local production and consumption of energy on Tanegashima, raising environmental awareness on the island and contributing to achieving carbon neutrality on the island.
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On-site PPA: A type of Power Purchase Agreement, in which solar power generation equipment owned by the PPA operator is installed on the user's premises or on the roof of an office, factory, etc., and supplies electricity.
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IDEPASS: A system at facilities that can procure electricity derived from renewable energy sources that separates the electricity supplied (renewable energy electricity/non-renewable energy electricity) and allows customers to choose which one they want to use.
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Renewable Energy Choice: A system that allows EV users to choose to charge using renewable energy from electricity separated by IDEPASS.
Started providing Energy Management System (EMS)
We provide the "idemitsu CN Support Service," which provides one-stop support for local governments and companies working to reduce CO₂ emissions and achieve carbon neutrality (CN), in promoting the CNization of electricity and mobility and improving disaster resilience. As one of these services, we began offering an EMS in April 2024 that links the charging and discharging of electric vehicles (EVs) and storage batteries with air conditioning output control.
To launch the service, a demonstration experiment was conducted on the introduction of the EMS at the Kunitomi Town Hall in Miyazaki Prefecture. The demonstration experiment continuously monitored and predicted electricity demand, automatically discharging electricity from EVs and storage batteries and reducing air conditioning output during peak electricity demand hours, and automatically charging EVs outside of peak hours. As a result, the system achieved a reduction in electricity bills and CO₂ emissions.
We will continue to contribute to the realization of carbon neutrality society by promoting the introduction of renewable energy and EVs to local governments and companies.
Development of healthcare business for seniors
As part of our implementation of "next-generation mobility and community in anticipation of an aging society," we have been working on a rehabilitation-type day service business (covered by nursing care insurance) that contributes to maintaining and improving the health of local senior citizens. In 2021, we acquired QLC Produce Co., Ltd. as a subsidiary, and currently contribute to supporting the independence of 20,000 users at 170 Complex nationwide. We will continue to strengthen our store opening activities and develop new services in line with the changing environment surrounding nursing care.
We are also considering introducing healthcare services to support healthy and safe mobility for those not yet in need of care.
Local production and local consumption of energy
Conducting a demonstration project for next-generation agricultural solar power generation
Starting in June 2023, we have been conducting a demonstration experiment of next-generation agricultural solar power generation that combines agriculture and renewable energy generation in rice paddies in Kisarazu City, Chiba Prefecture. Conventional agricultural solar power generation using fixed mounting systems has an issue that it is difficult to apply to agricultural land such as rice paddies that are widespread across the country, because the panels block sunlight, affecting the growth of crops that require a lot of sunlight, such as rice.
We use a movable mounting system that automatically tracks sunlight, and during the rice growing season, we prioritize sunlight exposure to the rice grown under the panels (rice growing mode), thereby maintaining and improving rice yield and quality. In addition, by adopting bifacial solar panels, we can generate electricity on the back side of the panels using reflected light from the rice paddies and maximize sunlight exposure to the panels during the fallow season (power generation mode), thereby compensating for the amount of electricity lost during the rice growing season throughout the year. The generated electricity is sold to general customers through our power business.
By showing the possibility of effectively utilizing rice paddies, which account for more than 50% of all farmland, as new suitable sites for large-scale solar power generation facilities, which are becoming increasingly scarce, and by showing farmers new sources of income (land rent/electricity sales, etc.), we hope to contribute to the further spread of renewable energy and sustainable farming.
This system won the 2023 Good Design Award sponsored by the Japan Design Promotion Organization.
Participating in Shunan City, Yamaguchi Prefecture Wood Biomass Utilization Promotion Council - Demonstrating and promoting the use of wood biomass materials to promote local energy production and consumption and forestry development -
In January 2021, we participated as a council member in the Wood Biomass Material Utilization Promotion Council, established by Shunan City, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Taking advantage of Shunan City's characteristics of having both abundant forest Resources and biomass power generation facilities, the council will promote the utilization of domestically produced wood biomass materials with the aim of promoting local energy production and consumption and promoting forestry.
In September 2022, as part of the council's activities, a joint afforestation demonstration project agreement was signed with Shunan City, Tosoh Corporation, Tokuyama Corporation, and Marubeni Corporation, and multiple tree species, including fast-growing trees, were planted in part of Shunan City's municipal forests in 2022 and 2023. The project is examining the short-term, low-cost production of biomass using fast-growing trees, as well as the reduction of transportation costs by taking advantage of the proximity of forests to consumer areas. Based on this demonstration experiment, the project aims to expand wood biomass production using fast-growing trees to other areas of the city, and will also discuss ways to utilize domestic wood biomass.
Aiming to supply energy with lower carbon emissions, we are operating a biomass power plant at Tokuyama Complex on the site of a former Refinery. Going forward, together with Shunan City, we and Tokuyama Complex will continue to promote the use of renewable energy and the establishment of a model for local production and consumption of energy.
Promoting collaboration agreement with Saitama City
Under the "Collaboration Agreement on Promoting the Utilization of Renewable Energy, etc. to Realize a Zero Carbon City" concluded with Saitama City, we will supply surplus solar power generated by ordinary households in the city to facilities in the city through our company. We are developing a local production for local consumption model. This model also provides a "notification service" that monitors surplus power data and notifies you of possible abnormalities in solar power generation equipment, as well as a service that introduces inspection and maintenance companies. We support the effective use of photovoltaic power generation equipment.
In order to further promote the agreement, we are planning to carry out demonstrations with an eye toward the carbon neutral era at the city's apollostation addition to introducing solar power generation equipment, storage batteries, and energy management, we will also provide EV rapid charging services. The plan is to make EVs truly zero-carbon by charging them with renewable energy.
Through these efforts, we aim to realize the "regional circular and symbiotic sphere" advocated in this agreement.
