Mitsubishi Corporation is aiming to review plans for the offshore wind projects consortia led by the company were awarded in Japan’s first offshore wind auction mid-2025. The situation was discussed during an Akita Prefectural Assembly’s Special Committee on Budget meeting on March 3, 2025, suggested.
“There is no need to be pessimistic, but we need to keep a close eye on this,” said Akita Prefecture’s Governor Norihisa Satake. Satake, citing discussions with Mitsubishi, said the company would like to conclude the review by summer 2025.
Two of the three projects Mitsubishi-led consortia were awarded in the auction, including a 478.8MW one off the coast of Noshiro City, Mitane Town, and Oga City, and an 819MW one off the coast of Yurihonjo City, are in Akita Prefecture. In early February 2025, the company and its partner C-Tech announced they were reconsidering the plans for those projects amid changes in the macroeconomic environment bringing uncertainty about the projects future.
“Looking ahead to the projects being resumed after reevaluation, we will continue to work on matching the power generation business with local businesses,” said Sadato Ishikawa, the head of Akita’s Prefectural Industry and Labor Department, at the assembly meeting.
Alongside reassessing the projects’ business plans, Mitsubishi Corporation and Chubu Electric Power, the majority owner of C-Tech, took offshore wind-related impairment losses of 52.2 billion yen and 17.9 billion yen, respectively, in the nine-month period ended in December 2024.
Seeing the challenges faced by the offshore wind industry including increasing costs and tightening supply chains, METI is revising the tender format, with some of the changes applying retroactively under certain conditions. The Japan Power Industry Executive monthly report covers further details of these regulatory shifts.
Correction (March 6, 2025): The previous version of this article incorrectly referred to Satake as mayor.
