
On January 14, 2025, Kansai Electric Power and RWE Renewables submitted a planning-stage “document on primary environmental impact consideration” for an up to 600MW offshore wind project off the coast of Shimamaki Village in Hokkaido.
According to the document, the companies will only proceed with the “Hokkaido Shimamaki Offshore Wind Generation Project” if they are awarded the project in one of Japan’s upcoming offshore wind auctions. “Sea Area Offshore Shimamaki” is a “Promising Zone” under the Act on Promoting the Utilization of Sea Areas for the Development of Marine Renewable Energy Power Generation Facilities.
Should Kansai EPCO and RWE Renewables be awarded the project, they are planning to use up to 43 turbines, each with an output of 14MW to 24MW. While the maximum planned capacity by the two companies is 600MW, the grid connection capacity reserved by the government for the area is currently 555MW.
Four other companies begun the environmental impact assessment process for projects in the area including Eurus Energy (up to 1GW), Vena Energy’s Japan Wind Energy (up to 600MW), Cosmo Eco Power (up to 1GW), and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ joint venture Hokkaido Offshore Wind Development (up to 585MW).
Separately from the Shimamaki project, in November 2024, Kansai EPCO and RWE Renewables also started the environmental impact assessment process for a potential up to 1.68GW project in the adjacent “Sea Area Offshore Hiyama.”