Toshiba Corp to enter Japan’s wind industry

• 10 years ago (2013-09-26)
• Junior Isles

Asia 850 Renewables 752

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Japan’s Toshiba Corp. will enter the domestic wind power generation business, becoming the first Japanese general electric manufacturer to do so, the company has announced.

A Toshiba subsidiary will acquire Sigma Power Janex Co. by November this year in what is expected to be a multi-billion yen deal. Earlier this year, Toshiba made its first official foray into the solar generation business, a renewables focused approach it is now looking to expand to wind.

The company says that the potential profitability of guaranteed, fixed prices under the government’s renewables feed-in tariff programme enticed it into this new venture, with an eye to the long run profitability of ‘green’ energy sources.

Sigma Power Janex (SPJ), which is a spinoff of Fukuoka-based Japan New Energy Explorer Co (JANEX), will be operating the two JANEX wind farms in the Kyushu region, one in Kagoshima Prefecture and the other in Nagasaki.

SPJ will also be running a wind farm planned for Kagoshima Prefecture by 2014, and there are four more to be built in Miyagi, Yamaguchi and Ehime Prefectures in the pipeline.