Arensis, a downtown Los Angeles-based biomass to energy system provider, and Japanese biomass energy pellet producer Green Mark Energy Co., have signed an agreement for a 2-megawatt energy project in Japan.

The signing ceremony took place July 26 in Tokyo as part of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s 10-day trade mission to East Asia that began July 24; it was announced by both Garcetti’s office and the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator in downtown Los Angeles.

Under the agreement, Arensis, which is headquartered at the incubator, will provide 40 biomass to energy units to Japan worth an estimated $15 million and generating 16,000 megawatt hours of electricity annually. The agreement marks Arensis’ largest global project to date, according to Laurie Peters, spokeswoman for the incubator.

The biomass-to-energy plant will be located in Kumamoto on the Japanese island of Kyushu. Arensis will be compensated through payments from Japanese utilities for the electricity the biomass plant sends onto the power grid.

Green Mark Energy is a supplier of biomass fuels, primarily in the form of pellets, which are formed through the compression and heating of biomass fuels such as wood, food waste or crop waste. The pellets are in turn heated to generate electricity.

“It is a great honor to partner with GME and sign our 2MW development project in the presence of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and his Asia trade mission business delegation,” Julien Uhlig, chief executive of Arensis, said in the joint announcement. “The project will help Japan avoid at least 7800 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year. Compared to oil and coal energy production, this one project means a decrease of 150,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions polluting our air over the course of 20 years and exemplifies the importance of renewable energy incentivized programs.”

Economy, education, energy and transportation reporter Howard Fine can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @howardafine.