Tokyo Gas to enter woodchip-burning power output

TOKYO, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Tokyo Gas Co (9531.T) said on Monday it had acquired a stake in a Japanese biomass-derived electricity wholesaler, as Japan's largest city gas company looks for cleaner power sources.

Japan, the world's fifth-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, has been trying to cut carbon dioxide emissions, blamed for global warming, by shifting away from fossil fuels for power generation.

The utility has also signed a 15-year contract to operate from 2010 a 13,600 kilowatt woodchip-burning thermal power plant that the wholesaler, Agatsuma Bio Power Co, will start building this month in Gunma prefecture, north of Tokyo.

Tokyo Gas acquired a 4.44 percent stake in Agatsuma Bio Power, the rest of which is owned by Japan's largest general leasing company, Orix Corp (8591.T).

Japan is under pressure to meet its target under the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which obligates 37 developed nations to cut emissions by an average 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-2012. (Reporting by James Topham; Editing by Hugh Lawson)