Japan’s eRex plans two additional biomass plants, poised to become Japan’s largest biomass power producer

Japanese power supplier eRex’s plans to construct two new power plants by 2020 are set to make the company Japan’s largest biomass power producer.

The plants will be built in Okinawa and another location in western Japan under a recently compiled medium-term business plan, the Nikkei Asian Review newspaper reports.

Construction is projected to begin around mid-2017 and will cost an estimated 50 billion yen (€435 million).

Each facility will have a capacity of around 75,000kW, which will bring the total capacity of eRex’s six biomass plants in service or under construction to 370,000kW.

The plants will be fuelled by palm kernel shells and similar waste feedstocks imported by eRex.

The generated electricity will be sold to big-name utilities via the feed-in-tariff system or used to supply eRex's own retail power business.

An eRex biomass plant in Kochi, southwest of Kobe, is up and running and plants in three other locations are under construction.

The four facilities will generate a total of about 220,000kW of power by 2019, according to the company.

One of these, a Fukuoka Prefecture plant being built with an affiliate of Kyushu Electric Power, is the first biomass facility in Japan to employ project finance.

Biomass power is quickly becoming popular in Japan as it is not dependent on weather nor does it carry with it the dangers of nuclear power.