Japanese integrated trading and investment company Marubeni has secured a loan of JPY1bn ($921m) for the construction and operation of two offshore wind farms.
With a total capacity of 140MW, the wind farms will be built at Akita Port and Noshiro Port in Akita Prefecture.
The loan was secured through Akita Offshore Wind Corporation (AOW), a special purpose company established in 2016.
To finance the projects, Marubeni has signed a loan agreement with a number of banks and financial institutions.
The loan includes project finance that has been offered by various domestic and foreign financial institutions through MUFG Bank, Mizuho Bank and Mitsui Banking Corporation.
The loan will be used for the construction of bottom-fixed offshore wind farm, as well as the onshore substation and transmission lines.
Once completed, the project will become the first large-scale offshore wind power project in Japan.
Based on the feed-in tariff programme, the clean energy generated by the facilities will be sold to Tohoku Electric Power Co under a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA).
The construction works at the site are expected to begin this month and the wind power facilities are scheduled to commence commercial operations by 2022.
Once operational, Marubeni plans to use Noshiro Port as the base port for operations and maintenance.
Marubeni secured the project by participating in Akita Prefecture’s Public Offering for the Offshore Wind Farm Project and was selected as the potential main owner or operator in February 2015.
Marubeni established AOW, conducted a feasibility study and reached a decision to build the offshore wind farm.
