The Kamisu biomass power generation plant is a 50MW power plant planned to be built in the Kamisu city, in the Ibaraki Prefecture of Japan which will run on 100% biomass feedstock comprising palm kernel shells and wood pellets.
The biomass-based power project is being developed by Kamisu Biomass Power Generation, a special purpose company established by Solariant Capital in August 2016.
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The investors for the Kamisu Biomass power generation project include Chubu Electric Power (45%), Mitsubishi UFJ Lease & Finance Company (44%), Solariant Capital (6%), and Bio Fuel (5%).
The investors agreed to invest in the project company in September 2019 and the project financing agreement for the Kamisu biomass power generation facility was also signed in the same month, while a full turnkey engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for the project was awarded in October 2019.
Construction works on the project are expected to be started in December 2020 with commissioning expected in July 2023. The Kamisu biomass power plant is expected to generate approximately 350MWh of reliable renewable electricity a year which will be sufficient to power approximately 110,000 Japanese households.
Plant location
The 50MW biomass power plant will be built within the Okunoyahama Industrial Park in the Kamisu city, in the Ibaraki Prefecture of Japan.
Kamisu biomass power generation plant make-up
The Kamisu biomass power plant will be equipped with a low-NOx circulating fluidised bed (CFB) boiler, a high-efficiency dust-removal fabric filter, a reheat steam turbine, and generator supplied by GE.
The power generation method for the plant will be based on water-cooled reheat-recycle technology where the steam expanded by the turbine is reheated and returned to the turbine for improving power generation efficiency.
Kamisu biomass power generation project financing
The Kamisu biomass power generation project is being financed through the Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank. The financing agreement for the project was signed in September 2019.
Contractors involved
Japanese industrial and engineering group Hitachi Zosen Corporation in a joint venture with Okumura Gumi was awarded a turnkey engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for the Kamisu biomass power generation project in October 2019.
GE Steam Power was selected to design, manufacture and supply the components of the power plant package including the boiler, steam turbine generator as well as air quality control systems in February 2020.
JERA was contracted to provide the Owner’s engineering service as well as the operations and maintenance (O & M) services for the project in September 2019.
Biomass-based power generation in Japan
The Kamisu biomass power plant, which will run entirely on wood pellets and palm kernels shells (PKS), is being developed under Japan’s Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) programme to increase the share of renewables in the country’s energy mix to 24% by 2030.
Japan’s total biomass power installed capacity under the FiT system reached 2,114MW by the end of 2019. The country plans to triple its biomass-based power generation capacity by 2030.
The fuel for the existing biomass-based energy facilities in Japan is mostly procured from Indonesia and Malaysia. Japan exported a total of 725,000 tonnes (t) of PKS from the two countries in 2019.
