A Mitsubishi Corp consortium is preparing to withdraw from three offshore wind power projects in Japan's Chiba and Akita prefectures due to concerns over profitability, the Nikkei business daily reported on Tuesday.
Japan, heavily reliant on energy imports, has turned to renewable energy to bolster energy security and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
A Mitsubishi Corp spokesperson said nothing has been decided when contacted by Reuters, adding that the company is still examining its domestic offshore power projects.
Mitsubishi leads consortia that won Japan's first state-run offshore wind auctions in 2021.
The government started to auction sites for future offshore wind farms, targeting 10 gigawatts (GW) of capacity by 2030 and 45 GW by 2040.
Groups led by Mitsubishi were selected to operate three projects in the Akita prefecture in the north and the Chiba prefecture to the east of Tokyo, with total projected capacity of 1.76 GW and a target start-up of 2028 to 2030.
In February, Mitsubishi said it was reviewing how to proceed with its offshore wind projects in Japan given a "significantly changed" business environment, showing that the country is not immune to rising costs across offshore wind projects globally.
(Reuters - Reporting by Yuka Obayashi, Satoshi Sugiyama and Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Susan Fenton and Louise Heavens)
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