Nippon Oil, the largest oil refiner in Japan, expects its sales volume of the dual-purpose home-use cogeneration system to reach 100,000 units in 2013 from the 150 units the company expects to sell in fiscal 2005, Nippon Oil President Fumiaki Watari said Monday. Nippon Oil will lease the 150 units next year at Y60,000 per year.

Amid growing concerns about global warming, Nippon Oil aims to capitalize on an expected rise in demand for environmentally-friendly devices such as cogeneration systems.

In the fiscal year beginning April 2005, Nippon Oil plans to sell the new LPG- based cogeneration system to household users in Tokyo and its surrounding prefectures. The following year, the company plans to sell the system - named " Eneos Eco LP-1" - nationwide, Watari said.

The onsite cogeneration system would provide enough power to cover most of the electricity requirements of an ordinary household user. By installing the system, a household user could reduce the amount of electricity supplied by the nation's 10 major power utilities, including Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501.TO).

The system also would serve as an emergency backup for times when the country's electricity supply infrastructure is damaged by earthquakes or typhoons.

Watari said the system is efficient at generating electricity and heat for cooking; however, he didn't give a cost comparison with current electricity suppliers.

Earlier this month, Tokyo Gas Co. (9531.TO) announced plans next year to start selling a home-use cogeneration system that will use natural gas and a polymer electrolyte fuel-cell technology.

Watari said Nippon Oil won't be competing against Tokyo Gas. Nippon Oil expects to sell the LPG-based cogeneration system mainly to users on the outskirts of the nation's major cities, while Tokyo Gas is targeting the Tokyo metropolitan areas where underground natural gas pipelines are built.

"Natural gas pipelines have been built only in 5% of the areas in Japan, and mostly in the major cities," Watari said, suggesting many consumers outside the cities rely largely on LPG as the main cooking fuel.

Japan is the largest LPG consumer in Asia, with annual demand totaling 18.5 million metric tons in 2003. Of this, Japan imported 14 million tons, mainly from Saudi Arabia, other gas-producing nations in the Middle East, Indonesia and Australia.