Marubeni and Partners to Execute 140 MW Offshore Wind Farm off Japan

Marubeni has announced that it has decided to implement the construction, operation & maintenance of 140 MW offshore wind farm in Akita Prefecture of Japan

The Marubeni Corporation has announced that through a special purpose company called Akita Offshore Wind Corporation (AOW) it has decided to implement the construction, operation and maintenance of a 140 MW offshore wind farm at Akita Port and Noshiro Port in Akita Prefecture of Japan.

The project will be jointly developed with the with Oboyashi Corporation, Tohoku Sustainable & Renewable Energy, Cosmo Eco Power, The Kansai Electric Power, Chubu Electric Power, The Akita Bank, Ohmori, Sawakigumi Corporation, Kyowa Oil, Katokensetsu, Kanpu and Sankyo.

The loan agreements for undertaking the development work on the project were concluded recently. The offshore wind farms are comprised of the bottom fixed offshore wind farm and the onshore substation and transmission lines and together are expected to be the first large-scale offshore wind power project in Japan established on a commercial basis.

The Loan consists of project finance provided by multiple domestic and foreign financial institutions with MUFG Bank, Ltd., Mizuho Bank, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation jointly acting as the joint mandated lead arrangers.

Marubeni had participated in Akita Prefecture’s “Public Offering for the Offshore Wind Farm Project” for the purpose of expanding the introduction of renewable energy and industrial development and was selected as the potential main owner/operator on February 5, 2015. Thereafter, Marubeni has established the AOW in which the Joint Business Partners had also decided to invest, carried out a feasibility study and reached a decision to implement the Offshore Wind Farm Project.

The project is to construct, operate and maintain the offshore wind farms with approximately 140 MW in total electric power, which will be sold to Tohoku Electric Power for 20 years under a power purchase agreement based on the feed-in tariff program.

The construction of the onshore substations and transmission lines are expected to start in February 2020 and the commercial operations are expected to start in 2022. During operation, Noshiro Port will be the base port for operations and maintenance.