Enviva to Supply Sustainable Wood Bioenergy to J-Power’s Coal-Fired Power Plants in Japan

Enviva Partners, LP, and Electric Power Development Co., Ltd., have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the long-term, large-scale supply of sustainable wood biomass from Enviva's manufacturing facilities in the U.S. Southeast to J-Power’s coal-fired power plants in Japan.

The agreement is designed to develop an executable and investable plan under which Enviva will build new infrastructure to produce and deliver up to 5 million metric tons of sustainable wood pellets to permanently replace coal in J-Power’s existing coal-fired power plants, significantly curbing the utility’s greenhouse-gas emissions.

The MOU provides a framework to advance the role of biomass as a renewable and sustainable energy source and help J-Power meet its “Blue Mission” goal to be carbon-neutral by 2050.

“Climate change is a global challenge requiring a global solution. Enviva has an established track record of delivering a dependable, scalable, and sustainable product, which today delivers substantial and deep decarbonization of energy to generators and industrials around the world,” said Thomas Meth, co-founder and executive vice president of sales and marketing at Enviva.

Under the agreement, the parties will jointly evaluate the most sustainable and cost-effective means to deliver on the potential of the coal-to-biomass conversion project, such as security of supply, port reception, delivery and storage logistics, safety measures, and project economics.

The investment will leverage J-Power’s existing coal-fired power plants by re-purposing them via conversion, resulting potentially in both dedicated as well as co-fired biomass plants.