Canadian energy company Northland Power and the Japanese provides renewable energy project development services Shizen Energy have agreed to set up a joint venture to develop offshore wind projects in Japan.
Under the terms of the agreement, the partners will establish a 50:50 joint venture (Chiba Offshore Wind Inc.), which will serve as the development vehicle for the projects. The joint venture is pursuing projects that have a combined capacity of approximately 600 megawatts (MW).
Japan’s offshore wind market is gaining momentum following the government’s commitment to increase the deployment of renewables and the passing of the legislation that supports large-scale offshore wind development areas.
The Japanese government issued an updated Energy Supply Plan in July 2018, targeting 10 GW wind capacity (offshore and onshore) by 2030 as part of its ambition to reach a 22-24% renewable share of electricity generation by 2030.
Northland Power is a global developer, owner and operator of sustainable infrastructure assets with over 30 years of successfully developing, constructing and operating power projects over full lifecycle.
With a global fleet of assets generating in excess of 2.4 GW, the company has operating facilities in Canada, Latin America, and Europe. In addition, Northland has a project pipeline of 1.4+ GW under construction and advanced development, including Asia, where it owns a 60% equity stake in the 1,044 MW Hai Long project under development in Taiwan.
Shizen Energy has contributed to the development of approximately 1 gigawatt worth of renewable energy in Japan and is expanding its portfolio to include solar, onshore & offshore wind, biomass and hydro power generation.
As Shizen Energy also aims to expand its global businesses, it completed the construction of its first overseas solar power plant in Brazil in July 2019. Further, Shizen Energy has started working on wind and solar projects in Vietnam and Thailand.
Mike Crawley, President and Chief Executive Officer of Northland said: “With Shizen Energy’s strong track record of developing and constructing renewable projects in Japan, and Northland’s success developing, constructing and operating offshore wind farms globally, we view this agreement as an excellent opportunity to combine the strengths of the two companies to achieve something great.”