On November 16, 2021, Enviva Partners LP, a U.S.-based global renewable energy company focused on sustainable wood bioenergy, and Tokyo-based utility Electric Power Development (J-Power) announced that they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the long-term, large-scale supply of wood biomass from Enviva’s operations in the Southeast of the U.S. to J-Power’s coal-fired power plants in Japan.[1] Under the MOU, the two companies will work to develop a plan for Enviva to 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. J-Power has a total of 8.4 GW of coal-fired power capacity. The companies will work to repurpose the facilities into both dedicated and co-fired biomass plants, resulting in over 80% greenhouse gas emission reductions for each site. Biomass provided by Enviva will be certified under the EU’s current sustainability criteria, which guarantees that the biomass is only sourced from sustainably managed forests.

The MOU is part of J-Power’s plan to meet its “Blue Mission” goal to be carbon-neutral by 2050. The company has also recently announced various plans, including a phase-out of aged thermal power plants, to be replaced with co-firing biomass or ammonia. Enviva also announced its own net-zero goal to reduce, eliminate, or offset all of its direct emissions by 2030.

[1] https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211116006425/en/Enviva-and-J-Power-Join-Efforts-to-Decarbonize-Power-Generation-in-Japan