Engineering firm Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) will renovate Japan's 1,070MW Taketoyo coal-and-biomass co-firing power plant, focusing on wood pellet fuel-conveying safety ahead of planned biomass operations resumption in June 2028.
KHI will upgrade the Taketoyo No. 5 unit's dust collection systems and install fire monitoring equipment to prevent fires and explosions, the company said 31 July. Work is targeted for completion by June 2028.
The plant operated coal-and-biomass co-firing from August 2022, consuming around 500,000 tonnes annually of wood pellets at a 17% biomass rate. A dust explosion fire halted operations in January 2024; the plant resumed coal-only burning in January 2025 following repairs.
Jera, Japan's largest power producer by capacity, initially targeted Q1 2027 for biomass co-firing restart but has postponed to June 2028. Critically, the company plans to reduce biomass co-firing from 17% to 8% when operations resume, citing safety enhancement as the priority. The plant currently operates only during peak electricity demand seasons (summer and winter) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Japan’s 1.1GW Taketoyo biomass-coal plant to revamp safety systems
