2011 Volume 65 Issue 6 Pages 539-549
With the revision of the New Energy Law by a cabinet order in 2002, the government introduced subsidies for the construction of woody biomass power plants, prompting companies, municipalities, forest unions, and other organizations to build such facilities nationwide. In 2003, the Renewable Portfolio Standard Law came into force, accelerating the construction of facilities that generated 5 to 50 megawatts of electricity using woody biomass. In addition, a wide range of projects to use woody biomass energy, including the development of next-generation bio-fuel such as cellulosic bioethanol, the use of biomass heat for a wider range of purposes, and thermal power generation by burning a mixture of coal and biomass, are currently under way.
According to a survey by the Forestry Agency, by the end of fiscal 2008 the number of woody biomass power plants had reached 144, 12 times as many as in fiscal 1999, when the survey was first carried out, and the number of boiler facilities using heat from woody biomass had also grown sharply from 174 in fiscal 1999 to 615. A shortage of wood chip and soaring fuel prices lowered the operating rate of these facilities and hit their profitability, but there have recently been plans to add biomass to fuel at coal-burning thermal power plants and to build large power plants using woody biomass alone, and so the supply-demand for wood chips is expected to become tight again. The changing circumstances for using woody biomass energy are heightening expectations for untapped biomass resources such as forestry residues, which have been impeded by high costs.
Using woody biomass as a source of energy is the final stage of the cascaded use of forest resources. Recently, various business models with new value such as energy service companies (ESCO) , carbon offsets, and CO2 emissions trading have been announced, and feed-in tariffs for power generated using woody biomass are expected to be introduced. These changes will increase the profitability of woody biomass power generation, which has been a stumbling block so far. Woody biomass power generation should be promoted as an effective way to achieve the Forestry Agency’s Forest and Forestry Revival Plan, which aims to increase lumber self-sufficiency to 50% by 2020 and create a low-carbon society.
