Mitsubishi Heavy Plans U.S. Wind-Power Assembly Plant
July 28 (Bloomberg) -- Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., Japan’s biggest heavy-equipment maker, plans a wind-power generator assembly plant in the U.S. or Canada early next year to benefit from President Barack Obama’s push for cleaner energy.
The proposed plant may cost as much as 10 billion yen ($105 million) and annually produce equipment capable of generating 600 megawatts of electricity, Yoshiaki Tsukuda, a director overseeing Mitsubishi’s engine and turbine business, said in an interview in Yokohama yesterday.
Mitsubishi is competing with General Electric Co. to supply wind turbines and generators as the Obama administration embarks on legislation that will require utilities to get as much as 15 percent of their power from renewable sources. The news follows the acquisition by Japanese trading house Sumitomo Corp of a stake in a Texas wind farm from American International Group Inc. for about $100 million.
“The wind is blowing in the direction of renewable energy, given Obama’s pledge,” said Eiji Tomaru, an analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities Co. in Tokyo. “Demand will likely improve when the U.S. economy stabilizes in years ahead.”
Mitsubishi’s shares have gained 6 percent in the last six months, trailing the 15 percent rise in the benchmark Topix index. They fell 1.1 percent to 374 yen at 12:30 p.m. in Tokyo.
Tokyo-based Mitsubishi will decide details of the new factory by autumn, Tsukuda said. Possible locations for the plant, which will assemble parts from factories in Mexico and Japan, include Texas and the Dakotas, where demand is likely to grow, he said. It is more cost-effective to assemble wind-power generators near where wind farms are likely to be built, he said.
Clean Energy
The company is targeting a 50 percent rise in annual sales from its nuclear and clean-energy business to 3 trillion yen by fiscal 2012, Vice President Ichiro Fukue said in June.
The U.S. built 8,358 megawatts of wind generators last year, bringing total capacity to 25,170 megawatts, according to the Global Wind Energy Council. One megawatt is enough to power about 800 U.S. homes.
Germany and Spain were the second- and third-biggest users of wind power, with capacities of 23,903 megawatts and 16,754 megawatts, compared with a world total of 120,791 megawatts, data compiled by the council shows.
Mitsubishi has an annual wind-power capacity of 1,200 megawatts, Tsukuda said. The company produces turbines at factories in Mexico and in Japan’s southwestern prefecture of Nagasaki, and makes nacelles, or housings for wind-turbine generators, at its Yokohama and Nagasaki works, he said.
Mitsubishi has also started design work for offshore wind- power equipment including blades and nacelles, Tsukuda said.
“The U.S. and Europe will shift to offshore wind power once available plots of land are filled,” he said.
