Mitsubishi considers exiting offshore wind projects in Japan

Mitsubishi Corp said on Wednesday it was looking at withdrawing from three Japanese offshore wind power projects, Report informs via Reuters.

Mitsubishi-led consortia have three wind farms in Japan's Chiba and Akita prefectures, and the trading house said in February that it was reviewing how to proceed with the projects given a "significantly changed" business environment.

Mitsubishi logged a charge of 52.2 billion yen ($354 million) on the projects earlier this year.

"We are currently considering all options, including the withdrawal from the projects," Mitsubishi said in a statement, adding that no decision at been made.

Russia's war on Ukraine, which led to spikes in prices of equipment and fuel as well as rising interest rates, was a factor that forced Mitsubishi to start re-evaluating the projects, it has said.

Mitsubishi-led consortia won auctions for the projects in 2021. The farms have a projected capacity of 1.76 gigawatt (GW) and were expected to start operations in 2028-2030.

Japan is targeting future offshore wind farm capacity of 10 GW by 2030 and 45 GW by 2040.

Winners of other Japanese offshore auctions include RWE, Iberdrola, and BP.