With Japan focusing on strengthening its renewable energy base, Hitachi Zosen has set sights on annual wind power sales target of $419 million in a decade.
Its current annual sales figure in wind energy portfolio is unavailable.
The Osaka-based company has stated that it wants to expand its bouquet of services to include engineering, operations and maintenance services considering the possibility of competition in the future.
“We need to develop and have projects in stock because in 10 years there will be several” competitors focusing solely on engineering services, Takashi Fujita, general manager of the department promoting the company’s wind-power business, said recently.
According to Japan Wind Power Association (JWPA), the country had an installed wind power capacity of 2,788 MW (1,971 units at 418 sites) at the end of 2014.
As of last November, Japan also had 6.23 GW of wind power projects undergoing environmental impact assessment (EIA).
The proposed projects are located mainly in Hokkaido and Tohoku, two northern rural regions of Japan.
Japan terminated its system of initial subsidies in FY2010 and has been following a feed-in tariff system since July 2012.
And the country has followed a strict environmental impact assessment (EIA) process for all wind farms above 10MW capacity since October 2012.
The EIA process takes roughly 4 years to complete, which has drastically slowed installations since 2012. However, Japan is steadily progressing towards adopting more projects.
In February, the city of Murakami in Niigata prefecture chose Hitachi Zosen along with nine other companies for developing a fixed-base offshore wind project.
Currently, the 220-megawatt wind farm is undergoing EIA and surveys on wind and seabed conditions. It is expected to be started in five years.
Hitachi Zosen has also entered into an agreement with Norwegian oil and gas producer ASA for technology cooperation on a floating offshore wind technology that can be installed at depths of about 300 feet.
A collaborative venture of Hitachi Zosen and Ideol, France, signed an agreement last month for sharing of the latter’s floating offshore technology suitable for projects in shallower waters.
Hitachi Zosen has already built three onshore wind stations in Japan, and is now considering offshore wind projects.
The company was also involved in the development of a self-elevating barrier with the ability to bear the impact of powerful tsunamis.
It is among the many initiatives the company has been taking in its diverse set of portfolios.
Experimental walls have withstood waves of up to 10 metres in height.
Many city administrations in Japan have been developing similar barriers following the tsunami in 2011, which claimed 20,000 lives.
Ajith Kumar S