Renewable Energy-Related Business

Since entering the biomass power generation business with the intention of supplying electricity to the group’s paper manufacturing companies, we have been working on our renewable energy power generation business with the aim of ensuring a stable supply of clean and safe electricity, for which social demands have been increasing. In 2016, in Noda Village, Iwate Prefecture, we started operation of a woody biomass power plant to generate electricity using materials including nearby unused timber, bark, and PKS (Palm Kernel Shell) as fuel. This project has been marked as one of the reconstruction projects in Noda Village, which suffered major damage from the tsunami following the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. The Company has taken the first step in contributing to local communities in terms of employment, including the hiring of locals from Iwate Prefecture. Further, in 2018, we established OVOL New Energy in Malaysia for the collection and export of PKS to Japan and other countries. We are strengthening our system to provide stable supplies of biomass fuel to Japan.

We are engaged in the solar power generation business under the Feed-in Tariff Scheme for Renewable Energy (FIT) at 3 locations: Kushiro City in Hokkaido, Iwate, and Miyagi. Like woody biomass power generation, it is promoted in cooperation with local governments, and we believe it is a high public-interest business development that will lead to the revitalization of local industries.

In 2018, we established OVOL New Energy in Malaysia to collect Palm Kernel Shells (PKS) and export them to countries such as Japan, thereby strengthening our system for the stable supply of biomass fuel. Additionally, we are setting up a third PKS yard in Malaysia and have begun exploring the handling of wood pellets.