Japan's first large-scale offshore wind farms to start construction

A $913.70m loan deal for the project was inked with Marubeni Corporation.

Japan’s first large-scale offshore wind farms at Akita Port and Noshiro Port in Akita Prefecture have now entered their construction, operation and maintenance phase, according to an announcement by Marubeni Corporation. 

Marubeni signed a project finance agreement with joint business partners for a $913.70m (JPY100b) loan. The deal was inked with OBAYASHI CORPORATION, Tohoku Sustainable & Renewable Energy Co.Inc., Cosmo Eco Power Co., Ltd., The Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc., Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc., The Akita Bank, Ltd., Ohmori Co., Ltd., Sawakigumi Corporation, Kyowa Oil Co., Ltd., Katokensetsu Co. Ltd, Kanpu Co., Ltd. and Sankyo Co.

The loan consists of project finance provided by multiple domestic and foreign financial institutions with MUFG Bank, Ltd., Mizuho Bank, Ltd. and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation jointly acting as the joint mandated lead arrangers.

Marubeni participated in the public offering for the project on 5 February 2015. Thereafter, Marubeni has established a special purpose company called the Akita Offshore Wind Corporation (AOW) in which the joint business partners have also decided to invest, carried out a feasibility study and reached a decision to implement the project.

The offshore wind farms are comprised of the bottom fixed offshore wind farm and the onshore substation and transmission lines. The power generated from the wind farms will be sold to Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc. for 20 years under a power purchase agreement (PPA) based on the feed-in tariff (FiT) program.

The construction of the onshore substations and transmission lines are expected to start in February 2020 and the commercial operations are expected to start in 2022. During operation, Noshiro Port will be the base port for operations and maintenance.