Sumitomo Forestry Co. said Tuesday it will work together with a Sumitomo Chemical Co. unit to build a wood biomass thermal power plant in Mombetsu in Japan’s northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido.
The plant will start operations at the end of 2016 with an output capacity of 50,000 kilowatts.
All generated electricity will be supplied to Hokkaido Electric Power Co. under a government program that requires power companies to buy electricity from renewable energy sources at a fixed price.
The 15-billion-yen project also calls on Sumitomo Forestry and Sumitomo Joint Electric Power Co., based in Niihama, Ehime Prefecture, western Japan, to build a wood chip factory.
The factory will manufacture wood chips from timber taken from forests owned by Sumitomo Forestry for supply to the power plant.
It is the second biomass power generation project for the two companies, after a plant began operations in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, southwest of Tokyo, in 2011 with an output capacity of 33,000 kilowatts.
Sumitomo Forestry Managing Executive Officer Akito Kataoka said at a press conference in Sapporo that the two companies hope to expand their biomass business nationwide and overseas.
