Northland Power and Shizen Energy have signed an agreement to collaborate on offshore wind development opportunities in Chiba Prefecture, Japan.
The partners will establish a 50:50 joint venture named Chiba Offshore Wind Inc., which will serve as the development vehicle for early-stage offshore wind opportunities.
According to the companies, the joint venture is pursuing projects that have a combined capacity of approximately 600MW.
The agreement marks Northland Power’s entry into the Japanese offshore wind industry.
“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,” said Mike Crawley , President and CEO of Northland.
Japan’s offshore wind market is gaining momentum following the government’s commitment to increase the deployment of renewables and the passing of the legislative foundation for the designation of large-scale offshore wind development areas.
In its Fifth Basic Energy Supply Plan from July 2018, the Japanese government targets 10GW of wind capacity (offshore and onshore) by 2030 as part of its ambition to reach a 22-24% renewable share of electricity generation by 2030.