Showa Shell to build biomass power plant

Japanese oil distributor Showa Shell Sekiyu K.K. <5002> said on August 7 that it will build a thermal power plant fueled by woody biomass on the site of its former oil refinery in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo. Showa Shell closed the Kawasaki refinery in 2011.
The JPY16 billion (USD162 million) plant is slated to go on stream in December 2015. Showa Shell plans to sell the electricity produced by the facility to corporate users.
This will be the first biomass power generation project for Showa Shell.
The new facility’s annual electricity generation is estimated to reach 300,000 megawatt-hours, equivalent to the amount of electricity consumed by some 83,000 households a year. The biomass fuel will be imported from North America.
The company plans to grow its power generation business into a new major revenue source at a time when Japan has been facing power shortages as most of the nation’s nuclear power reactors remain idle after heightened safety concerns following the March 2011 accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
Showa Shell is currently operating a thermal power plant jointly with Tokyo Gas Co.
(August 7, 2013)