Mitsubishi-led consortia will develop 3 offshore wind power projects with a total capacity of up to 1.7GW in northern Japan and around Tokyo.

Mitsubishi and its subsidiary Mitsubishi Corporation Energy Solutions last week (24 December 2021) said Japan's government appointed the consortium as operators for these 3 promotion-zone offshore wind power projects:

• 391MW off coast of Choshi City in Chiba prefecture
• 479MW off coast of Noshiro City, Mitane Town, and Oga City in Akita prefecture
• 819MW off coast of Yurihonjo City in Akita prefecture

The consortia comprises:

• Choshi and Noshiro:
  • Mitsubishi
  • C-Tech, a subsidiary of Chubu Electric Power
• Yurihonjo:
  • Mitsubishi
  • Venti Japan
  • C-Tech

The consortia will also partner with these 3 companies on a regional promotional strategy:

• Amazon
• NTT Anode Energy, a subsidiary of NTT
• Kirin

The prospective assets are the first bottom-fixed offshore wind power projects in the general sea area in Japan. The consortia target soon to reach a final investment decision and commence operations by December 2030.

The 3 projects are among the Round 1 General Sea Areas auction, launched in November 2020 and ended in May 2021. The tender saw 2 bidders participate in Chiba, while 5 participants submitted bids for Noshiro and Yorihonjo.

The projects are the second tender launched by the government to promote marine areas for renewable power generation. The government plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.  

The winning bidder to the first tender – 16.8MW Goto floating offshore wind farm in Nagasaki – was a consortium, announced in June 2021, comprising Toda, Eneos, Osaka Gas, Inpex, Kansai Electric Power, and Chubu Electric Power.

IJGlobal in December 2021 reported that the government launched a tender for a 356MW offshore wind farm in Happo-Noshiro zone in northern Japan.