Japanese refiner Eneos will build an 8.5MW solar power plant at an unused area of its 127,500 b/d Wakayama refinery that it plans to scrap next year, aiming to strengthen its domestic power business.
Eneos is targeting to start operations in August 2023. It will begin construction of the solar power plant in mid-September at the refinery site at Wakayama prefecture in the western Kansai region. Electricity generated by the plant will be sold to Kansai Transmission and Distribution, a subsidiary of utility Kansai Electric Power, Eneos said.
Eneos will scrap the Wakayama refinery by October 2023 because of falling domestic oil product demand. The solar power project had already been decided when Eneos announced the refinery closure in January.
Eneos is still discussing with the local government how else to use the Wakayama site after the refinery closure, it said.
Eneos had around 663MW renewable power generation capacity — 486MW from solar power, 86MW from onshore wind and 91MW from biomass — as of June.
Japan Renewable Energy (JRE), in which Eneos acquired a 100% stake last October, operates 511MW of the total 663MW, the refiner said.
Eneos plans to increase its renewable power generation capacity by 552MW, including from plants outside Japan and those owned by JRE, to achieve its goal of achieving carbon neutrality in its own operations by 2040.
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