Toshiba to stop building coal-fired power plants, eyes shift to renewable energy

Toshiba Corp. on Wednesday announced that it will stop taking new orders to build coal-fired power plants as it shifts towards greener, renewable energy.

The firm has seen rising costs and descending profits in the fossil fuel power industry amid a global trend towards the pursuit of cleaner energy and major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

"Clearly, there will be a paradigm shift in the energy sector globally. As a result, we have decided to stop receiving orders for coal-fired thermal power plants that emit large amounts of carbon dioxide," Toshiba President and CEO Nobuaki Kurumatani told a press briefing on the matter.

At the same time, the firm is hoping that increased investments in clean energy, including solar and hydro power, will see its sales in the sector triple to around 6.2 billion dollars by fiscal 2030.

Toshiba has said, however, that for the time being, it forecasts its total sales to drop 8.8 percent to around 29.31 billion U.S. dollars for the current business year through next March.

The conglomerate, while opting not to release a full-year net profit outlook, also said it expects its operating profit to fall 15.7 percent to about 1.04 billion U.S. dollars.

Toshiba's shift to cleaner energy comes as Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has pledged to bring the nation's greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.