Japan’s Sumitomo Corp. said its subsidiary Summit Energy Corp., will develop a 50-megawatt wood-fired biomass power project Sakata City, Yamagata Prefecture.
Power from the plant will be used by Summit Energy’s electric power retail business. The project will be constructed in the Sakata Rinkai Industrial Park located adjacent to the port of Sakata and will be operated by Summit Sakata Power Corp., a company established in December 2012 and wholly-owned by Summit Energy.
The project is expected to cost 25 billion yen (US$208 million). Construction will start in June 2016, with commercial operations expected to start in May 2018.
The wood for the project will be procured through Sumitomo’s Materials, Supplies & Real Estate Division, which handles Japanese wood chips, imported wood pellets, and other renewable fuels. It is planned that fuels will be procured not just from local sources—such as unused wood materials and timber off-cuts from within and around Yamagata Prefecture, an area with abundant forest resources—but also from overseas sources as well.
Once the project is completed, Sumitomo will have a portfolio of 175MW of biomass capacity from three plants, making it one of the largest biomass power plant owners and operators in Japan.