GS EPS Co., a local energy firm, said Monday that it will spend 300 billion won ($269.5 million) to build Asia’s No. 1 biomass generation plant in a bid to tap deeper into the renewable power industry.

The envisioned plan calls for GS EPS to construct the plant that will use a mix of agricultural byproducts to generate electricity in Dangjin, some 123 kilometers south of Seoul.

In a groundbreaking ceremony held earlier in the day, the company said it plans to complete the plant by August 2015.

The plant is expected to generate up to 100 megawatts of electricity, the largest capacity among the country’s plants powered by renewable energy. The amount is equivalent to the power used by 110,000 people.

Renewable energy refers to energy that comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides and geothermal heat, which can be replenished by natural processes.

GS EPS earlier started the operation of a 30-MW biomass generation plant in China’s eastern Shandong province in November. (Yonhap News)