
Ozu Biomass Power Corporation owned by Maeda Corporation and three other companies commissioned the 50MW Ozu Biomass Power Plant in Ozu City, Ehime Prefecture, on August 1, 2024.
The power plant, exclusively fueled using wood pellets, is expected to generate approximately 350GWh per year using 200 kilotons of pellets. For 20 years, the generated power will be purchased by Shikoku Electric Power Transmission & Distribution Company at 24 yen/kWh under the feed-in-tariff (FIT) scheme.
Maeda Corporation, Japan Petroleum Exploration (JAPEX), Yonden Business (Shikoku Electric Power Company group), and Shinko Denso, which own 57.6%, 35%, 6.4%, and 1% of Ozu Biomass Power Corporation, respectively, first announced the project on March 24, 2022. Construction work started on June 1, 2022.
While the Japanese government offered a fixed 24 yen/kWh FIT for woody biomass power plants when the Ozu Biomass Power Plant project was certified, it now decides the FIT price for newly certified biomass projects larger than 10MW through auctions. That said, no bids were submitted in the last two (FY2022 and FY2023) rounds of the biomass auction. Most recently, a 51MW project was awarded an 18.5 yen/kWh FIT in the FY2021 biomass auction.