Mitsubishi Buys into Belgium's Largest Wind Project

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Mitsubishi Corporation (Tokyo) has announced that it is taking a major stake in the largest proposed offshore windfarm in Belgium.

The company has teamed up with Dutch energy firm Eneco (Rotterdam, Netherlands) to take a 50% stake in the 370-megawatt (MW) Norther project, located 23 kilometres (km) off the Belgian coast in the North Sea. It will feature 44 8.4-MW turbines from MHI Vestas Wind Systems A/S (OMX:VWS) (Aarhus, Denmark), which will be some of the first 8-MW turbines to be deployed globally. The joint venture agreement was executed by Mitsubishi's wholly owned U.K. subsidiary Diamond Generation Europe Limited. The remaining 50% of the project is owned by Belgian energy and technology services provider Nethys (Liege).

Located in water depths up to 20 metres, the Norther windfarm will be Belgium's largest, generating enough power for approximately 400,000 homes. Construction is slated to get under way in January 2017, with operations set to start around the summer of 2019. It is expected to cost around $2.1 billion to construct.

"Mitsubishi's focus on the development of offshore wind projects is part of a policy to increase its presence in the renewable energies sector, and part of efforts to contribute to the realization of a 'low-carbon society'," the company stated. Having already installed a team of offshore wind experts, we are now taking greater initiative to develop, construct and operate wind energy projects."

Last week, Industrial Info reported that Diamond Generation Europe and Eneco were part of a consortium that secured a contract from the Dutch government to build the Borssele III and IV windfarms, which will have a combined generating capacity of up to 700 MW. For additional information, see December 15, 2016, article--Shell Consortium Wins Dutch Offshore Wind Project.

Mitsubishi and Eneco have worked together previously on a 50:50 wind project in 2012. They partnered on the 120-MW Luchterduinen offshore windfarm in the Netherlands, which was commissioned late last year.

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