RWE’s offshore wind plans in Japan expand to new area

RWE Renewables has emerged as a developer behind another wind project planned offshore Japan. The German company which, after its entry into the Japanese offshore wind market, first focused on feasibility studies and project development in the area of the Kyushu island and off Akita and Niigata prefectures on Honshu is looking at a new area where it could build an offshore wind farm.

Offshore Energy – Offshore Wind has contacted RWE Renewables to find out more about the project plans and whether RWE is developing it together with (one of) its partners, with the company yet to respond.

The developer is listed as one of 20 companies which have joined forces to deliver Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) documentation to Japan’s Yamagata Prefecture, after the prefectural authorities requested the developers planning projects in the area to consolidate their EIA documents as much as possible to minimise the burden on local authorities, residents, and other related parties.

The area is located offshore the town of Yuza in Yamagata Prefecture on the country’s Honshu island, between Akita Prefecture to the north, where RWE Renewables and its partner Kyuden Mirai Energy have been developing a wind energy project off the coast of Yurihonjo City, and Niigata Prefecture to the south, where the company also has offshore wind plans.

Kyuden Mirai Energy is also one of the companies on the list, as is RWE Renewables’ latest partner in Japan, Kansai Electric Power (EPCO).

With Kyuden Mirai Energy, RWE signed a Joint Bidding Agreement last year to enter into a full-scale feasibility study for the offshore wind project planned off the coast of Yurihonjo City in Akita Prefecture. This followed a cooperation agreement which E.ON, whose renewables business RWE acquired last year, and Kyuden Mirai Energy signed in April 2019 to jointly study opportunities for fixed-bottom offshore wind projects in Japan, starting with areas off the Kyushu island.

With Kansai EPCO, RWE entered into an agreement in August. The two companies said they would jointly study the feasibility of a large-scale floating offshore wind project off the Japanese coast.

Kansai EPCO has been developing several offshore wind projects in various regions, including Yamagata Prefecture.

As for the project(s) planned offshore Yuza, according to the consolidated EIA scoping document, the technology most likely to be used is fixed-bottom, with monopile, jacket, and gravity-based foundations in play.

Installed capacity of a project to be built there will be between 450 MW and 500 MW and, depending on the final assigned grid connection capacity, it would comprise up to 63 wind turbines.

RWE Renewables opened its first office in Asia in Tokyo, Japan, in October 2019 to support its ambitions to expand its renewables business to Japan. 

“We expect Japan’s offshore wind industry to gain real momentum”, Sven Utermöhlen, COO Global Offshore Wind at RWE Renewables said at the time. “The Japanese government has plans to considerably increase the role of offshore wind energy in electricity production. With clear regulations and a public tender scheme now in place, we see offshore wind as a crucial element of the transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy”.

A few days ago, Japan closed its first fixed-bottom offshore wind auction, which saw consortia led by Mitsubishi Corporation being selected to develop all of the projects offered in the auction. The consortia will build an 819 MW Yurihonjo and a 478.8 MW Noshiro Mitane Oga projects off Akita Prefecture, and a 390.6 MW Choshi project off Chiba Prefecture.

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism (MLIT) said that five bidders had competed to develop the Yurihonjo project, five to develop Noshiro Mitane Oga, and two to develop Choshi.

The ministries did not reveal the bidders, so it remains unknown for the time being whether RWE Renewables and Kyuden Mirai Energy competed to build their proposed project offshore Yurihonjo City.