Itochu, Osaka Gas commission Ichihara biomass plant

Japanese trading house Itochu and domestic gas retailer Osaka Gas have commissioned a 49.9MW biomass power plant in Chiba prefecture's Ichihara city. The power plant was scheduled to start commercial operations two months ago but this was delayed because of the impact of a typhoon.

The Ichihara project consumes 200,000-250,000 t/yr of wood pellets and palm kernel shells (PKS), imported mainly from Asia.

The location in Ichihara city was originally the property of Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding (MES). The three companies set up the joint venture Ichihara Biomass Power in 2017. Itochu and Osaka Gas each have 39pc and MES owns the remaining 22pc. Itochu is supplying the biomass feedstock, Osaka Gas operates the plant and MES will look after maintenance.

Japan imported 1.6mn t of wood pellet during January-October 2020, up by 24.2pc from the same period a year earlier, while PKS deliveries rose by 43.5pc to 1.8mn t during the period. Japan mainly buys wood pellets from Canada, Vietnam and Malaysia and PKS from Indonesia and Malaysia.

Osaka Gas has also acquired a 12MW solar power plant in Kagoshima prefecture from German renewables developer BayWa RE, taking its renewables installed generation capacity to 710MW. Osaka Gas aims to increase its renewables output to more than 1GW by 2030. It has already set up the D&D Solar joint venture with the state-owned Development Bank of Japan.

Japanese companies are accelerating technology development and new businesses related to renewables to achieve the country's target of net-zero GHG emissions by 2050.

By Reina Maeda