Daigas G&P Solution will halve the size of its planned Tomato-Atsuma onshore wind project to address the Ministry of the Environment and other stakeholders’ concerns, Kyodo reported on April 6, 2025.
In August 2024, the Osaka Gas subsidiary published a draft environmental impact assessment for the project in Atsuma City, Hokkaido. The draft assessment report indicated the project would consist of 10 4.3MW turbines with combined output limited to 34.39MW due to grid constraints, down from the 38MW indicated during the previous stages of the process.
Construction was expected to begin in March 2026. Commissioning was planned for April 2028, following a period of trial operation lasting between November 2027 and March 2028.
Kyodo’s report comes shortly after the governor of Hokkaido and the Minister of the Environment provided their feedback on the assessment report on March 19 and 25, 2025, respectively. In his feedback, the Minister of the Environment called on Daigas G&P Solution to reconsider its plan due to various bird species having been spotted around the locations of five of the turbines. The downsizing from 10 to five turbines appears to be a response to those concerns.
According to its website, Daigas G&P Solution currently has stakes in seven operational onshore wind projects totaling over 135MW. The most recent of those, the 25.3MW Shiribetsu Wind Power Plant, was commissioned in September 2021. The Tomato-Atsuma project nears construction amid rising wind project costs and growing local resistance to renewables.
