The global success story of the Spanner wood cogeneration plant continues: After the strong growth in Europe Spanner has now opened Spanner KK, a daughter company, in central Tokyo to conduct sales of the popular plants in Japan and in Asia. The operations have started on September 18th, 2014, and will perform optimum service and support throughout the country and develop specific solutions from Tokyo.

Spanner cogeneration plants produce heat and power from natural wood chips. The main advantages of this highly efficient, decentralized power and heat generator are ultimate energy efficiency, optimum use of renewable local resources and major cost advantages from using and selling the plant's power and heat products.

Japan with its vast, untapped woodlands is a very attractive market for wood cogeneration plants. The fact that they produce power and heat in a very environmentally, CO2 neutral way is a strong benefit in a country which is still reeling in the wake of the Fukushima catastrophe. As utility monopolies are becoming deregulated, decentralized power generation is on the rise as a key factor for enabling disaster resilient, sustainable cities and communities.

"We see enormous potential for our wood cogeneration plants in Japan, and we are proud that we have a solution to offer that will make the country more independent of nuclear power", says Thomas Bleul, Managing Director at Spanner. "After Canada, Japan is another extremely important market outside of Europe for us, and an important strategic step towards Spanner becoming a global operation.

The new Spanner daughter company Spanner KK will be headed by Dr. Oskar Bartenstein. He joins the company from Ecolifelab, where he had supervised engineering and certification for Spanner woodgas cogeneration plant deployment since March 2012. Dr. Bartenstein holds a Dr. Eng. in Information from the University of Tokyo and brings over 30 years of professional commercial and public market experience in Japan and over 15 years renewables expertise to Spanner.

"Japan is spending incredible amounts of money in maintaining and safeguarding fossil and nuclear energy. Cogeneration uses primary resources in a very efficient, environmentally responsible way. Wood is just much too precious to just burn it. The easy availability of wood all across Japan makes it the perfect energy source for providing disaster resilience in a country with harsh climatic and seismic conditions. Using this renewable energy resource honors Japan's rich natural heritage and makes it independent of fossil and nuclear energy. We are proud to be part of that future", says Oskar Bartenstein and projects: "Our growth rates in Japan will outpace those in Europe."

The Spanner wood cogeneration plant is available in three power models: 20 kWel/48 kWth, 30 kWel/80 kWth, and 45 kWel/115 kWth. Several hundred Spanner wood cogeneration plants worldwide produce power and heat for agricultural, forestry, hotel & restaurant and local heat network applications.