Marubeni secures funds for offshore wind farms in northern Japan

OBAYASHI

03/02/2020 09:45

TOKYO, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Marubeni Corp  8002.T  and its
partners have signed a project finance agreement with banks to
build and operate offshore wind farms in northern Japan, the
Japanese trading house said on Monday.
    Murubeni said the 100 billion yen ($921 million) plan to
build the wind farms with 140 megawatt capacity at Akita Port
and Noshiro Port in Akita prefecture was expected to be Japan's
first large-scale commercial offshore wind power project.
    The work, expected to be completed in 2022, includes
building offshore turbines fixed to the sea floor, as well as
onshore substation and transmission lines.
    Noshiro Port will be the base for operations and
maintenance, it said.
    Loan agreements to finance the project were secured with
domestic and foreign financial institutions. MUFG Bank Ltd,
Mizuho Bank Ltd and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp jointly acted
as the mandated lead arrangers, Marubeni said.
    A Marubeni spokeswoman declined to give a value for the
project finance.
    Power from the wind farms will be sold to Tohoku Electric
Power  9506.T  for 20 years under a power purchase agreement
based on the feed-in tariff programme.
    Marubeni's 12 partners include Obayashi Corp  1802.T ,
Tohoku Sustainable & Renewable Energy Co, Cosmo Eco Power Co,
Kansai Electric Power Co  9503.T  and Chubu Electric Power Co
 9502.T .
    
    ($1 = 108.5700 yen)

 (Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Edmund Blair)
 ((Yuka.Obayashi@thomsonreuters.com; +813-4563-2761;))