Kawauchi Fukko Energy commissioned the 40.8MW Kawauchi Onitaroyama Wind Power Plant in Kawauchi Village, Fukushima Prefecture, on February 1, 2025, lead developer JR-EAST Energy Development said on February 3, 2025.
The facility consists of 10 4.3MW turbines with their combined output capped at 40.8MW. It is expected to generate 93.4GWh per year. The produced power will be sold to Tohoku Electric Power Network, the area’s TSO, through the feed-in-tariff (FIT) scheme. When the project was FIT-certified, the rate offered for 20kW+ onshore assets was 22 yen per kWh for 20 years.
Fukushima Power and Kawauchi Village also invested in the project’s special purpose company alongside JR East’s energy subsidiary.
Initially, the project was developed as the “Fukushima Abukuma Wind Power Concept” by Fukushima Prefecture, Japan Wind Engineering, Eurus Energy Holdings, and Eco Power (now Cosmo Eco Power). Its “planning-stage document on primary environmental impact consideration” submitted in February 2016 had ambitions for the project to span 55,000ha across multiple Fukushima municipalities and consist of 200 turbines with a combined output of up to 700MW.
The project was scaled down to its current size and location when it was sold to JR-EAST Energy Development in February 2017.
Kawauchi Onitaroyama is JR-EAST Energy Development’s fifth and largest operational onshore wind power plant. The previous four projects are sub-10MW. According to the company’s website, it plans to commission two more 8.6MW projects and one 68MW projects this year. Next year, it plans to commission a 28MW wind farm in Ehime Prefecture, its first outside the Tohoku area.
JR-EAST Energy Development has multiple other onshore projects under development. However, like other companies in the sector, it has been facing challenges with increasing costs due to inflation and weak yen. It scrapped the up to 34MW Kurikoyama project in Yamagata Prefecture in October 2024 and, according to NHK, also the up to 29.4MW Shin-Hojo Sakyu project in Tottori Prefecture in March 2025.
