This article empirically studies the determinants of (a) ex-ante credit-related profitability, and (b) ex-post credit issuance rates, of CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) projects. In particular, attention was paid to which project type, investing country, and host country is more likely to yield higher (or lower) profit and the issuance rate. It was estimated that, for the ex-ante credit-related profitability, the project type, particularly methane recovery and utilization (MRU) and biogas projects, tend to yield relatively higher profit by about 10% (in the IRR term). However, when the ex-post issuance rates are examined, MRU projects tend to fall behind other project types by as much as about -45%, opposite from the ex-ante profitability. Some project types such as empty fruit bunch biomass that occasionally concentrate in limited countries, are found to have relatively lower issuance rates.

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Since Asbestos health hazards have become a social problem, it is expected a large amount of Asbestos waste emission will continue for over 30 years in future.
Hokuriku Electric Power Co. has been engaged in the research and development of an On-site Disposal System for Asbestos Thermal Insulation Fusion & Neutralization using the alkali fusion, as a commissioned business of New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization（NEDO;independent administrative institution）from FY2006. In October 2010, this system was certified by the minister of the Environment as the processing of asbestos neutralization, which was the third case in Japan.
Recently we have implemented neutralization treatment of Asbestos Thermal Insulation emitted from the thermal power plants during the periodic inspection. In this paper, we report past research and development result and so on.

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There are two generally accepted methods for estimating power generation costs: so-called “model plant” method and the method using corporate financial statements. The former method can estimate the typical generation cost regarding each technology, whereas the latter method can estimate the actual costs based on the amount of the money paid by the utilities. This study used the latter method for estimating thermal and nuclear power generation costs in Japan for the past five years (FY2006-2010), finding that the nuclear power generation cost remained stable at around 7 yen per kilowatt-hour (kWh) while the thermal power generation cost moved within a wide range of 9 to 12 yen/kWh in line with wild fluctuations in primary energy prices. The authors then estimated the cost structures of thermal and nuclear power generation and found that if we take into account the effect of depreciation on the capital cost estimated by this method, the average nuclear power generating cost during the period of operation is estimated to be larger than the original estimation by 0.4 to 0.9 yen/kWh.

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