Japan's industry and land ministries on Wednesday picked three consortia, including one featuring Germany's RWE and its partners, to operate offshore wind farms in the second round of a public auction. They said they would award a fourth wind farm that was part of the tender at a later date.
The results of the second major round under a new law to promote wind power were closely watched by energy companies at home and abroad, after the first round was dominated by Mitsubishi Corp.
Japan's offshore wind power market is set to grow as the government aims to have 10 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind farm deals by 2030, and up to 45 GW by 2040, as part of its decarbonisation push.
The winner of a 315-megawatt (MW) wind farm off the coast of Oga-Katagami-Akita in Akita prefecture in northern Japan was a consortium of JERA, Electric Power Development (J-Power), Itochu and Tohoku Electric Power.
Another consortium of Mitsui & Co., RWE and Osaka Gas won a 684 MW wind farm off the coast of Murakami-Tainai in Niigata prefecture in northern Japan.
A third group of Sumitomo Corp and Tokyo Electric Power's renewable power unit won a 420 MW wind farm off the coast of Enoshima in Nagasaki prefecture in southwestern Japan.
The three projects are all bottom-fixed type wind farms and scheduled to start operation between June 2028 and August 2029.
The JERA consortium and the Sumitomo group plan to use Vestas wind turbines, while the Mitsui consortium plans to install General Electric turbines.
Two to four groups bid on each of the three blocks. The winners achieved the highest evaluation score in terms of bidding price and business feasibility among other criteria, said Takahiro Ishii, director of the wind energy policy office at the industry ministry.
"We have selected the best plans to help achieve Japan's 2030 energy mix goal and curb the public burden of the renewable energy levy," he said.
The ministries plan to announce the winner of the remaining 356 MW farm off the coast of Happo-Noshiro in Akita prefecture in March 2024, as revisions to the plan are needed by the potential operator because the timing of the use of a port overlapped with another Akita project.
(Reuters)