Southern Dome Noshiro Tropical Garden, Noshiro Energium Park (サザンドームのしろ／能代エナジアムパーク)

The Noshiro thermal power station in Akita Prefecture burns coal brought in by bulk carriers from Australia and other countries. Unit 1 entered service in May 1993, unit 2 in December 1994 and unit 3 in March 2020, each rated at 600,000 kW. Tohoku Electric describes the newest unit as among the most thermally efficient coal-fired units in the world, and the plant now co-fires wood biomass, which the company says supports local forestry.

Alongside the plant the operator built a public visitor facility, Noshiro Energium Park, which it presents as the showcase of a power station designed to coexist with the local community. The park is organised around a building crowned by a transparent dome, the Southern Dome Noshiro, and also includes a hall devoted to the local nebunagashi festival, an adventure playground and sports grounds.

Neither the official page, nor the operator's brochure, nor the Japanese Wikipedia article gives the year the park opened or names its designers. All of them, however, stress the idea behind it: energy that the plant would otherwise leave unused is put to work maintaining a tropical forest climate under the dome. The visitor centre is also the starting point for tours of the power station, which must be booked in advance.

The main building is easy to spot thanks to its transparent dome, which Tohoku Electric uses as the emblem of the park; Japanese Wikipedia calls the tropical garden "dome-shaped". The dimensions of the structure, its framing and its construction date are not published.

Inside, a sequence of spaces unfolds. The welcome hall, decorated with a large jungle mural, is dominated by the "Ener-ju", a monumental tree that acts as a guide through the building. It leads to the "Ancient Forest", modelled on the Carboniferous period, the "Energy Forest", populated with life-like dinosaurs, and the "Message Forest", designed like an ancient palace with a small theatre. A Tohoku Electric gallery explains how the plant works, a broad corridor doubles as an exhibition gallery, and a culture hall within the dome hosts lectures and seminars.

The plan of the tropical garden printed in the brochure shows a circular space crossed by a looping path: in through a tunnel, past a viewing terrace that faces a waterfall and a pool, then back towards the exit. In winter the space is heated with waste heat from the power station.

The tropical garden recreates a South-East Asian jungle that the operator aims to keep as close as possible to primary forest. The official brochure gives about 460 species and more than 3,300 tropical plants; Japanese Wikipedia quotes the same figures, 460 species and 3,300 plants.

Bananas and hibiscus are among the plants named. The brochure invites visitors to hunt for "fruits of the southern lands" hidden in the greenery, including pitanga, bananas and pineapples. The official page describes a dense forest with a waterfall, filled with birdsong and brightly coloured flowers, while from the viewing terrace the calls of animals add to the jungle atmosphere.

Along the route, a nipa palm hut serves as a resting place and photo spot. The other rooms of the dome are educational exhibitions rather than planted spaces: they trace the history of the Earth, the origins of energy sources, and the growth of per-capita energy use, shown as the growth of a tree.

The park lies within the power station grounds, about fifteen minutes by car from JR Noshiro Station. According to the operator, a self-guided visit to the visitor centre and tropical garden needs no booking and takes about half an hour; tours of the plant, arranged on request, include a bus circuit of the site, a view of the turbine hall through windows and the roof of the turbine building, which looks out over the town, the Noshiro wind farm and Kaze no Matsubara, described as Japan's largest pine forest.

The pine forest, the Hamanasu gallery and lookout, the Noshiro wood school and the children's museum with its planetarium all combine easily with a visit. The idea behind the place is easiest to appreciate in winter, when the plant's surplus heat is what keeps the jungle warm.