ITOCHU Corporation (Yoshihisa Suzuki, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that ENEOS Corporation (Katsuyuki Ota, President; hereinafter "ENEOS") will participate in Mutsu Ogawara Wind Power LLC, which was established by ITOCHU and Hitachi Zosen Corporation (Sadao Mino, President & COO; hereinafter “Hitachi Zosen”) in December 2019. Moving forward, the three companies will jointly push ahead with the development of an onshore wind farm in Rokkasho Village, Kamikita District, Aomori Prefecture with a view to commercialization.

The planned development is for the construction of an onshore wind farm with an interconnection capacity of 57,000 kW (maximum output capacity of 65,000 kW) in the region, aiming for the start of operations from 2024. Aomori Prefecture is one of the most suitable locations for onshore wind power generation projects in Japan, offering the prospect of favorable wind conditions.

ITOCHU has set "Contribute to and strengthen initiatives for the SDGs" as one of the Basic Policies in its next medium-term management plan, and is actively focusing on the renewable energy business. In addition to the development and operation of mega-solar power-plants, photovoltaic power self-consumption systems, biomass power plants and wind farms, ITOCHU is also committed to the development of next-generation power solutions using energy storage batteries which will play an important role in ensuring a consistent supply of renewable energy.

Hitachi Zosen aims to be "a solution partner that contributes to the realization of a sustainable, safe, and secure society" and is expanding business in the clean energy domain, including energy-from-waste systems, biomass power generation, wind power generation, hydrogen production by electrolysis of water, and methanation, to actively contribute to the realization of a low-carbon, recycling-oriented society. In the wind power generation business, Hitachi Zosen is involved in both onshore and offshore wind projects at every stage, from new project development through to wind farm construction and operation.

ENEOS set "strive to become carbon neutral by 2040" as a goal in the Group's Long-Term Vision, and it aims to expand domestic and overseas renewable energy power generation capacity to over 1 million kW by FY2022. ENEOS is expanding its mega-solar, biomass and onshore wind power businesses and is also accelerating business expansion in the offshore wind power domain, joining an offshore wind project in Taiwan in April 2019 and a project offshore of Happo Town and Noshiro City in Akita Prefecture in September 2020.

All three companies will leverage their knowledge of commercialization and operations built up in previous renewable energy projects to speed up the process of considering commercialization.

*The project is in the planning stages and is subject to change.