Page 6 - AsiaElec Week 27

AsiaElec RENEWABLES AsiaElec
Japan’s JRE opens first biomass plant
JAPAN
JAPANESE developer Japan Renewable Energy (JRE) has opened a 24.4-MW biomass power plant in Ibaraki prefecture in Japan, its rst bio- mass facility in the country.
e JRE Kamisu Biomass Power Plant will use recycled construction waste and forestry materials as fuel is should generate 200mn kWh per year, enough to meet the needs of 45,000 local households.
e power plant, to be run by JRE subsidi- ary GK JRE Kamisu Biomass, has signed a deal to supply its output to TEPCO Power Grid, the distribution unit of utility giant TEPCO.JRE also operates 10 solar projects in Ibaraki prefecture.
Since its creation in the a ermath of the Fuk- ushima disaster in 2012, JRE has become one of Japan’s leading independent players on the wholesale market.
JRE now operates 342MW of installed capac- ity across the country, of which 279MW is solar, 39MW wind and now 24.4MW biomass. It has another 134MW of solar and 25MW of wind under construction.
e company said that it generated 325.53mn kWh in the year to September 2018, compared to 241mn kWh in 2017, 169mn in 2016 and 9.3mn kWh in 2014.
As an early player in Japan’s renewable mar- ket, the company has taken advantage of gener- ous feed-in tari s (FiTs).
Now with technology costs falling and a regulatory regime that promotes more green investment by independent players, JRE will face increased competition in the solar and wind sectors.
As well as diversifying into biomass, the com- pany could invest in storage solutions, virtual power plants to maintain its expansion rates and market presence.
In 2017, JRE, which is owned by Gold- man Sachs and Singaporean wealth fund GIC, announced plans to invest $365mn in biomass in Japan.
e government is looking to triple existing biomass generation levels to 7.28 million kWh by 2030.™
Shanghai to pioneer bidding for offshore wind tariffs
CHINA
THE city of Shanghai has unveiled plans to holds China’s rst competitive tari -based o - shore wind tender as part of government plans to replaced xed feed-in tari s (FiTs) with a bid- ding system.
The Shanghai Development and Reform Commission said it would hold a competitive auction in 2019 for the 200MW Fengxian o - shore wind farm, to be built 12km from the coast in the north of Hangzhou Bay.
e Commission said in its 2019 Shanghai O shore Wind Power Construction Plan that either single companies or consortia can bid in the tender. Shanghai Investment Consulting will provide advisory services, while Shanghai Elec- tric Power will also advise on connecting the Fengxian wind farm to the national grid.
e wind farm tender will follow the Chi- nese Development and Reform Commission’s (NDRC) new o shore tendering rules, which call for competitive tendering to establish FiTs for new o shore wind project authorised from 2019. e NDRC has set an upper guide price of CNY0.8 ($0.12) per kWh for tenders in 2019 and
CNY0.75 ($0.11) per kWh for tenders in 2020. By comparison, the xed FiT for 2018 was
CNY0.85 ($0.12) per kWh.
e new competitive system aims to reduce
the subsidy that the government pays for o - shore wind, while also stimulating interest from wind developers.
China had 188.4GW of wind capacity in 2017, of which 2.8GW was o shore, according to the Chinese Wind Energy Association. e gov- ernment aims to have 210 GW of wind capacity by 2020.
China generated 366TWh of wind power in 2018, 24.1% more than in 2017, according to BP’s Statistical Review.
Looking further ahead to 2027, the gov- ernment aims to have 70GW built or under construction, which would make it the biggest o shore wind market in the world, overtaking Germany and the UK.
Shanghai province hosts many of China’s offshore wind farms, including the 300MW Huaneng Rudong project built by China Huaneng Group.™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 27 09 •July•2019