Japan confident on wind power after Mitsubishi blow

TOKYO

Japan remains optimistic about the adoption of renewable energy despite Mitsubishi pulling out of three big offshore wind projects, the government said on Aug. 28.

Blaming high costs, Mitsubishi said it was exiting the projects, which planned 134 turbines to generate power for more than a million homes.

Mitsubishi Corporation CEO Katsuya Nakanishi said costs had "swelled far more than we anticipated" in the wake of factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine crisis.

"We concluded that establishing a viable business plan is not feasible," he told a news conference on Aug. 27.

"The government regards offshore wind power as an important source of electricity towards making renewable energies [Japan's] main source of electricity, regardless of success or failure of a particular project," government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters yesterday.

The government "will further examine the issue, including reviewing conditions of the auction system, after examining factors behind the withdrawal from these projects," he added.

Japan declared in its updated energy plan this year that offshore wind power was a "trump card" in its drive to make renewables its top power source by 2040.

Japan is the world's fifth-largest single-country emitter of carbon dioxide, after China, the United States, India and Russia, and is heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels.

Nearly 70 percent of Japan's power needs in 2023 were met by power plants burning coal, gas and oil, a figure Tokyo wants to slash to 30-40 percent over the next 15 years.