Electric Power Development Co., better known as J-Power, plans to enhance construction of advanced coal-based thermal power plants in Asia, incoming President Masayoshi Kitamura said in a recent interview.

"J-Power has the most efficient clean-coal thermal power plant technology in the world," Kitamura said. "If we transfer the technology to developing countries expanding power demand, we could contribute greatly to preventing global warming."

"Coal as well as nuclear and solar energy will remain indispensable for meeting growing global power demand," said Kitamura, who is scheduled to take the reins at J-Power in June.

J-Power has specific plans to build advanced coal thermal power plants in Indonesia and India, he said. It intends to cooperate with power utilities and other companies to construct a coal thermal power plant that would minimize dust, sulfur oxide and nitrogen oxide emissions on coal-rich Sumatra, he said.

In India, J-Power is considering projects to combine Japanese financial aid with technology transfers from the company, he said.

If coal thermal power plants in the United States, China and India are replaced with more sophisticated ones, annual carbon dioxide emissions could be reduced by some 1.3 billion tons, close to Japan's annual total emissions, J-Power officials said.

While running plants in Japan to generate electricity for sale to utilities, J-Power has participated in power generation projects at 21 sites in the United States, Thailand, China, Taiwan, the Philippines and Poland. It has also provided technological assistance to more than 60 foreign countries.