Watahan Holdings and Kyudenko established a 65:35 joint venture, Watahan Wood Power, that will take over the ownership and operation of the 14.5MW biomass power plant in Shiojiri City, Nagano Prefecture, which was developed as part of Shinshu F-Power Project, a project aiming to utilize locally produced wood.
According to Watahan Holdings’ statement, the power plant’s owner and operator Soyano Wood Power “has fallen into a slump due to factors including the termination of a contract for the supply of wood chips following Watahan Kenzai’s civil rehabilitation.” “After repeated discussions among Soyano Wood Power’s shareholders, we have decided to establish a company with Kyudenko to take over Soyano Wood Power’s power generation business,” the statement continued.
As the first step in the ownership transition, on November 1, 2024, Watahan Holdings acquired all Soyano Wood Power preferred shares held by Green Finance Promotion Organization. Watahan Kenzai, which already owned 35% of the company’s ordinary shares, bought out Kyuden Mirai Energy’s (32% of ordinary shares) and Kitano Construction’s (8% of ordinary shares) stakes at the same time. Hachijuni Capital maintains a minority share in the form of preferred shares.
The involved parties will hold an explanatory session for local residents in December 2024 and apply for transfer of the power plant’s feed-in-tariff (FIT) contract to Watahan Wood Power in April 2025. They expect to transfer the biomass power generation business to the new entity around June 2025 and liquidate Soyano Wood Power after that.
The power plant was FIT-certified in April 2013, commissioned in October 2020, and its FIT contract is valid until September 2040. At the time the power plant was FIT-certified, the scheme offered woody biomass projects fixed 24 yen (excluding tax) per kWh for 20 years.
