Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas has received an order from MHI Vestas Offshore Wind for the supply 33 Vestas V117-4.2MW typhoon variant turbines for Akita Noshiro offshore wind farm project in Japan.
The Akita Norshiro offshore wind farm, located in Japan’s northern Akita prefecture, will be the first utility-scale offshore project in Japan.
MHI Vestas Offshore Wind is a JV between Vestas Wind Systems and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which has recently won the contract to deliver the turbines for the project.
The wind farm is owned by Akita Offshore Wind Corporation, a special purpose company led by Marubeni Corporation, with additional Japanese project sponsors. Marubeni and its partners in February signed a project finance agreement with banks to build and operate the offshore wind farms in Akita Port and Noshiro Port.
MHI Vestas Offshore Wind will be responsible for the overall construction of the project.
13 turbines will be supplied at the Akita site, while the Noshiro site will incorporate 20 turbines. In total, the projects will supply the equivalent of nearly 130,000 homes.
The electric power output from the farms will be fed through both the Akita and Noshiro ports in Akita Prefecture, with an expected output of 55 MW at Akita Port and 84 MW at Noshiro Port.
According to Vestas, the V117-4.2 MW Typhoon turbine offers maximum energy production in medium to high wind speeds.
"[The turbine] strengthens the 4 MW platform’s performance in extreme wind conditions expanding reach into areas with very strong wind and typhoon type weather," Vestas said.
"We are happy to be able to support MHI Vestas, our joint venture that focuses on offshore wind, in their first firm order in Japan. This order showcases Vestas’ experience in Japan and our comprehensive turbine portfolio to have the right turbine variant to fit the market’s needs”, said Clive Turton, President of Vestas Asia Pacific.
Vestas installed its first turbine in Japan in 1995 and has since installed a total of 629 MW.
"Japan is an important market to us, and we will continue to work closely with our customers and partners to offer best-in-class renewable energy solutions to support Japan’s clean energy transition,” said Netoshi Kuriyama, Vice President of Sales and Japan Country Manager for Vestas. “With wind becoming a more important energy source in Japan, we are witnessing drastic increase in activities”.
Turbine delivery is scheduled in the second half of 2021 and installation is expected to start in 2022.
The electricity produced will be sold to Tohoku Electric Power Co. for 20 years under a power purchase agreement based on the feed-in tariff program. Commercial operations at the wind farm development are expected to start in 2022