Japan’s Renova further delays Omaezaki biomass start-up

Japanese renewable power developer Renova has further delayed the launch of its 75MW Omaezaki biomass-fired power plant to July, as the final adjustment of boiler and turbine units is taking longer than expected.

It originally planned to start commercial operations of the power plant in central Japan's Shizuoka prefecture by July 2023, postponing the schedule to December, then to March before the latest delay. The plant is currently having trial runs.

Renova was forced to temporarily halt construction of the plant in February 2023 because of an accident that killed a construction worker. But this did not affect the original timeline to begin commercial operations.

Omaezaki is designed to consume an undisclosed volume of palm kernel shells (PKS) and unused woody material to generate around 530,000 MWh/yr of electricity. Power will be sold at a fixed price of ¥24/kWh ($0.16/kWh) generated from PKS and ¥32/kWh from unused woody biomass for 20 years from March 2024. The feed-in tariff period remains unchanged from the previous plan announced in December 2023, meaning Renova will begin power sales during the trial run.

Renova also postponed the start-up of the 75MW Ishinomaki Hibarino biomass power plant to March from January. It said the final adjustment of Ishinomaki Hibarino's boiler and turbine units is also taking longer than expected.

Japan's PKS imports totalled 2.9mn t in 2023, up by 0.4pc from a year earlier, according to finance ministry data.

By Nanami Oki