Mitsui to consider smaller turbines and construction delay at Niigata Wind Farm

Mitsui & Co. and its partners, a Japanese trading company, are looking at using'smaller turbines' and delaying?construction of their offshore wind farm in?Niigata.

The Mitsui consortium, including Germany's RWE, Osaka Gas and Osaka Gas, has won the development rights for the 684 megawatt (MW), offshore wind farm near Murakami-Tainai in 2023, but it is now facing steeply higher development costs, as seen in other offshore wind projects around world.

The spokesperson stated that it had planned to install 38 wind turbines of the 18-megawatt class. However, the company is now looking at 46 turbines from the 15-MW category after GE 'Vernova scrapped the development of the larger models due to increasing costs.

The spokesperson said that no decision had been made yet on the manufacturer of turbine to be used. Total?power production output will remain relatively unchanged.

The offshore construction will be delayed one year due to the switch to turbines.

A consultation meeting was held on Tuesday in Niigata to present the revised plan.

A Mitsubishi-led consortium withdrew in August from three offshore projects that were awarded for 2021 citing high costs. This prompted the government to intensify talks on measures to support industry development. (Reporting and editing by Peter Graff.)

(source: Reuters)