Renova submitted the environmental impact assessment methodology for the up to 105.6MW Yurihonjo-Iwaki onshore wind project to METI and relevant local governments on September 19, 2025.
According to the document, the company plans to install between 16 and 24 turbines, 4MW to 6.6MW each, across a 299ha site in Yurihonjo City, Akita Prefecture. It aims to begin construction in May 2029 and commercial operation in December 2032. The project’s EIA process was launched in September 2023.
Several wind farms, including J-POWER’s 16.1MW Yurihonjo Kaigan, the 10MW and 7.5MW Akita Kunimisan No. 1 and No. 2, the 7.5MW Coop Tohoku Hanekawa and Akita Shimohama, and multiple 2MW assets, already operate in and around Yurihonjo City. Separately, JR-EAST Energy Development completed EIA for an up to 42MW project in the area in September 2020 and Cosmo Eco Power filed primary consideration for the up to 100MW Akita Yurihonjo Wind Farm in March 2025.
The area off the coast of the city is also one of Japan’s offshore wind promotion zones. With a consortium led by Mitsubishi that won the rights to develop the project in the country’s first auction having withdrawn, the site is expected to be re-auctioned in one of the upcoming rounds.
Renova, initially focused on developing solar and biomass power plants under the feed-in-tariff (FIT) scheme, has begun diversifying into other asset classes including grid-scale battery storage and onshore wind.
The company currently holds a stake in one domestic operational wind project, the 147MW Abukuma in Fukushima Prefecture developed jointly with Sumitomo Corporation and others. It is also building the 54.6MW Reihoku-Amakusa in Kumamoto Prefecture, its first as lead developer. By FY2030, it targets an additional 400MW of operational and under-construction domestic onshore wind capacity.
