Japan energy firm Erex eyes 50 MW biomass power plant in northern Vietnam

Japanese renewable energy firm Erex Co., Ltd. plans to build a 50-MW biomass power plant in the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai, Erex representative director and president Honna Hitoshi said Wednesday.

Hitoshi revealed the plan at a meeting with Trinh Xuan Truong, Chairman of Lao Cai, who was leading a provincial delegation on a four-day visit to Japan ending the same day.

Hitoshi noted that 50 MW was above the approved figure of 30 MW for biomass power in the province under the power development plan VIII (PDP VIII). He said 50 MW capacity would ensure the project’s economic viability and operational stabiliy.

Backing the project, Trinh Xuan Truong suggested the project can be implemented in two phases of 30 MW and 20 MW.

He said provincial authorities would seek consultation with the Politburo, the highest decision-making body in Vietnam, to recommend the government approve the higher capacity.

For a 30-MW project, Lao Cai, with four producers of biomass for power generation, was capable of supplying needed fuel, Truong affirmed. It can also meet power transmission requests, he added.

Established in 1999, Erex operates five biomass power plants in Japan with a total capacity of 300 MW. Its first foreign-invested project is the 20 MW Hau Giang biomass power plant in the Mekong Delts, construction of which began in December 2022.

Erex is now studying or building 14 biomass power plants in 12 Vietnamese localities.

In July 2023, Erex and local partner Sakura Green Energy JSC broke ground for a VND474.8 billion ($20 million) biomass fuel plant in the mountainous province of Yen Bai. The three-hectare factory has a designed annual capacity of 150,000 tons of wood pellets and 305,000 tons of wood chip products a year. The plant is scheduled to begin operations in the third quarter of 2025.

In March 2024, Erex kicked off construction of a VND478.8 billion ($19.4 million) biomass fuel factory in the northern mountainous province of Tuyen Quang. Covering 3.3 hectares, the factory will be designed to produce 150,000 tons of biomass pellets and 150,000 tons of wood chips yearly, starting in 2025.