eRex to Invest US$164m in biomass power plant at Taiheyo Cement

Japan: eRex Inc, a power generation company, has agreed to invest US$159m in a biomass power project situated in the premises of Taiheyo Cement plant in Oita Prefecture, Japan. The total installed capacity of the power plant will be 50MW, sufficient to supply 100,000 households. The investment/MW will be US$3.18m. The power plant will use palm shells, a by-product of palm oil production in Indonesia and elsewhere, as its primary fuel. The company will set up a separate storage facility in Oita to hold 100,000t of palm shells. The power plant is expected to be operational in 2016.