The Japanese company Showa Shell Sekiyu has announced that it is to build a 49MW thermal power plant fuelled by woody biomass on the site of its former Ohgimachi plant at the Keihin refinery complex in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.
The decision represents a further step in the company’s expansion plans aimed at increasing its scale and sources of power generation in the Japanese electric power business and also represents a major step in the company’s attempts to deliver renewable energy technologies matching the new energy needs of Japanese society. The project will take its place alongside the company’s oil and solar businesses as part of Showa Shell Sekiyu’s strategy to deliver future growth through structural business transformation and will result in significant additions to the company’s power generation portfolio over the next few years.
The project is close to a major urban area which gives it several infrastructure advantages and it is also in a coastal location which makes it convenient for ships to deliver fuel thereby increasing the project’s logistical benefits. The new facility will use environmentally friendly biomass fuel which will help to ease the tight demand for electricity in Japan and also falls under the Japanese government’s Feed-in Tariff scheme. It will generate an expected 300,000 megawatt hours per year, equivalent to the electricity requirements of 83,000 Japanese homes per year with completion scheduled for December 2015.
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