Two international wind power projects are afoot.
Japan’s Maeda Corp. (TYO: 1824) will be developing a 60 MW offshore wind farm off the coast of Shimonoseki city in the Yamaguchi prefecture. It will be comprised of 20 turbines and will require an investment of $320 million.
The farm will be developed in two stages. The first 10 turbines are expected to begin operations in April of 2016; the rest will come online the year after.
The company is actively looking for investors, and it anticipates the project will return 3.5 billion yen ($44.6 million) per year in electricity sales after completion.
Spain’s biggest wind-turbine manufacturer, Gamesa Corp. Technologica SA (MCE: GAM), is also involved in a new project. The company will supply 18 MW of machinery to Finland’s TuuliWatti Oy, installing four turbines at the Simo wind facility in northern Finland.
The project is part of a deal with TuuliWatti, a joint venture between Finnish companies St1 Oy and S-Group. The deal allows for another 117 MW to be installed across four sites in the future.
Finland has been a latecomer to the European wind power market, but the nation approved an incentive program in March last year which will see it try to increase wind power capacity more than tenfold by 2020. Since the troubled Spain has ended government aid for wind power, Gamesa swooped in on this attractive situation.
The Simo turbines should begin operations late in 2013. The facility is part of TuuliWatti’s $515 million investment strategy.
