Mitsubishi buys stake in Dutch offshore wind farm

The 43 model V112wind  turbines to be provided by Vestas Wind Systems A/S (VWS) of Denmark for the Luchterduinen project will provide enough power for 150,000 households, Eneco said in the statement.

Mitsubishi Corp. agreed to take a 50 percent stake in a wind park being built off the coast of the Netherlands, the second wind-energy investment in northwest Europe by Japan’s biggest trading group in less than a week.

Construction of the 129-megawatt Eneco Luchterduinen wind power project, 23 kilometers (14 miles) offshore in the Dutch North Sea, will begin in July 2014, according to an e-mailed statement from Eneco Group, the Rotterdam-based utility that’s leading the project, which will be operational after the summer of 2015.

The Dutch government is expanding wind energy capacity to reduce the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels and emissions of greenhouse gases.

The cabinet that took office in November has committed itself to boosting the share of renewable sources in power production to 16 percent by 2020, from about 11 percent in 2011.

Mitsubishi also announced Jan. 16 it was investing 576 million euros ($766 million) to aid Germany’s shift to renewable energy in a partnership with grid operator Tennet Holding BV to connect sea-based wind farms to the power network.

“Mitsubishi Corp. will continue to seek other opportunities to expand its participation in environmentally friendly infrastructure projects worldwide,” Nobuaki Kojima, Mitsubishi’s executive vice president for global environment and infrastructure business development, said in today’s statement.

No financial details were disclosed. Dutch daily newspaper De Telegraaf reported today that the wind park will involve a total investment of as much as 500 million euros.

www.vestas.com