Cabot buys solar farm in Japan

BOSTON—Cabot Corp. is focused on its carbon footprint.

And that, of course, means reducing the amount of electricity is uses to power its operations.

But Cabot is determined to do a little bit more, and its short-term goals prove as much. By 2025, for instance, Cabot intends to export twice as much energy as it imports. And it is with this aim in mind that Cabot took another big step forward.

The specialty chemicals and performance materials maker acquired April 13 a solar farm from Shoko Co. Ltd. The solar farm, which adjoins Cabot's Chiba, Japan, carbon black facility, will enable the company to export solar power as renewable energy for the region's electrical grid.

"As an industry leader, we are making proactive investments in renewable energy sources, such as this solar farm that can be exported to nearby businesses and communities," Bart Kalkstein, executive vice president and president of the Reinforcement Materials segment, said in a statement. "With this acquisition, we are supplying renewable energy in the local area as well as furthering our commitment to being a responsible neighbor to the Chiba Prefecture community."

According to Cabot, the Chiba solar farm generates as much as 3,500 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity per year—enough to power more than 700 Japanese homes annually.

It also allows Cabot to incorporate renewable energy resources into its network.

With the acquisition of the Chiba solar farm, Cabot Japan has increased its energy ratio—the amount of energy exported over imported—to 233 percent.

"Over the years we have incorporated a number of initiatives to reduce our energy consumption and harness energy from our processes by installing energy centers to produce power without creating any additional emissions," Kalkstein said. "As we pursue a net zero future we will need to continue to expand and diversify energy sources."

Backing its goal to export more energy than it uses is Cabot's investment in energy recovery systems. These investments, made across its network, reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its own production processes and assists in lowering the net emissions of neighboring businesses and communities.

Cabot already has invested in energy centers that produce power by converting recovered heat into useful energy. In Japan alone, these co-generation efforts are capable of producing approximately 172,000 MWh per year of useful energy from energy recovery—enough to powering over 36,000 homes in Japan each year.