Oji Green Resources Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oji Holdings Corp., Tokyo, Japan, and Japan-based Mitsubishi Paper Mills Ltd. have agreed to form a joint venture for the purpose of biomass power generation. The two companies also agreed to install a biomass power plant at Mitsubishi Paper’s Hachinohe mill, Hachinohe City, Aomori Prefecture, Japan.

Operation and maintenance of the biomass power plant will be contracted to Mitsubishi Paper, and the procurement service of biomass fuel will be mainly provided by Oji Green Resources. The electricity generated will be sold to electric power companies on the basis of a feed-in tariff scheme for renewable energy. The business is scheduled to commence in June 2019.

The new company will be named MPM Oji Eco-Energy Co., and Satoshi Takuma (executive director of Oji Green Resources) will serve as CEO. The company’s main business will be the operation and management of the power plant and wholesale of electricity. It incorporated on March 1, 2016, and has paid-in capital of 5 million yen. Oji Green Resources owns 55% and Mitsubishi Paper owns 45% of the joint venture company. 

The power plant facility has a capacity of 235 metric tons per hour (boiler evaporation capacity), and 75,000 kW of power generation capacity. The plant’s sales volume target is 530 million kWh p.a., with a sales target amount of 11 billion yen. The new plant’s fuel will be woodchip/biomass such as PKS (palm kernel shell) and coal. The total investment will be 24 billion yen.