A consortium led by Kansai Electric Power Company (Kansai EPCO) has announced plans to develop a 7.1 MW woody biomass power plant in Tochigi Prefecture, with the project’s environmental benefits to be supplied to Tokyo Metro through a virtual power purchase agreement, reports Bioenergy Insight.
The developers said the plant will be built on a 20,000 square metre site in Sano City and will be owned by a special purpose company named Sano Biomass Hatsuden LLC. Commercial operations are scheduled to begin in September 2028, with the facility expected to generate about 57 GWh of electricity annually.
The plant will use wood fuel sourced locally from across the wider Kanto region. Under the virtual agreement, Tokyo Metro will buy around 51 GWh per year of non-fossil certificates linked to the power plant’s output for nearly 19 years. These certificates are expected to help offset roughly 6.5 per cent of the railway operator’s carbon dioxide emissions.
Apart from Kansai EPCO, the project includes equity participation from beABLE, which will hold a 19.9 per cent stake, Biomass Fuel with 18 per cent, and NAS Construction with 13.1 per cent. The project marks the first time the four companies have jointly entered into a virtual power purchase agreement supported by a biomass power facility.
For Kansai EPCO, the Sano biomass project will be its first small-scale biomass power development. The company already operates the 75 MW Kanda Biomass Power Plant in Fukuoka Prefecture, which began operations in 2022, and also holds minority stakes in larger biomass power plants at Fukushima Iwaki and Aioi, which started operating in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
