French waste and water treatment group Veolia Environnement (EPA:VIE) today said it won two contracts for operation of biomass-fired power plants in northern Japan.
Veolia is active in Japan since 2002 but the deals mark the French company's entry into the energy market of the Asian country.
Veolia is set to enter into a joint venture (AssetCo-OpCo) with Japanese company Takeei and will manage the operation of two power plant running on wood chips.
The facilities will be located in Hanamaki (Iwate prefecture) and in Hirakawa (Aomori prefecture). Each plant will have a nameplate capacity of 6.25 MW and together they will produce about 100 GWh of electricity per year, that is, the equivalent consumption of 22,000 local households. Moreover, the plants are expected to save about 40,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.
Operations will start in Hirakawa in November 2015 and in Hanamaki in December 2016.
This project will bring in about EUR 90 million (USD 98.3m) in revenue over the next 20 years, Regis Calmels, senior executive vice president Asia for Veolia told French daily Les Echos.
(EUR 1 = USD $1.092)
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