GE Vernova’s Onshore Wind business announced today the start of operations of the Ishikari Hachinosawa Wind Farm located in Ishikari city, in Hokkaido island. The 21 MW wind farm, owed by Ishikari Green Energy Co Ltd, a subsidiary of one of Japan’s largest electric utilities, J-POWER, has been in operation since March 2024, and is powered by 5 units of GE Vernova’s 4.2-117 MW wind turbines, providing the equivalent energy to power approximately 7,400 households.
The project will help enable both companies to support Japan’s goal of increasing the share of the national electricity mix from renewable energy from 36% to 38% by 2030, as outlined by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry’s 6th National Electricity Mix. The project, being GE Vernova’s 2nd 4.2-117 wind turbine project for J-POWER, serves to further strengthen the companies’ relationship following the start of operations of the Esashi Replacement Project in early 2023.
GE Vernova, J-POWER and project construction partners have been working closely to achieve start of operations since the arrival and delivery of the main wind turbine components at Ishikari Shinko Port in May 2023. A unique challenge of the project was coping with snow. Ishikari is a location that experiences heavy snow and blizzards and had undergone incidents of white-outs with severe lightning and thunderstorms during the commissioning of the project. This posed challenges for the project team, who had to stop work periodically to prioritize safety. Daily snow removal work, close collaboration with the customer, and proper last-mile planning enabled the project to be constructed safely, and on-schedule.
Gilan Sabatier, Chief Commercial Officer, GE Vernova’s Onshore Wind Business said, “We appreciate the confidence that J-POWER continues to show us in choosing our 4 MW class turbine line for their projects in the county. This is their 23rd wind project in the country, and we are committed to helping to ensure the success of their operations to deliver the power needs of Japan, which is a strategically important country in Asia.”
Katsuya Toda, Department Director of Onshore Wind Power Business Dept. of J-POWER said, “J-POWER is proud to announce the implementation of a new Clean Energy Project in Ishikari Hachinosawa as a joint venture with SymEnergy Inc. We thank GE Vernova and everyone who helped make this project a reality. We will continue to provide many clean energy solutions in Japan to achieve the carbon neutrality goals set forth in J-POWER “BLUE MISSION 2050”.”
GE Vernova’s onshore wind business has a total installed base of approximately 56,000 turbines and nearly 120 GW of installed capacity worldwide. Committed to customer success for more than two decades, its product portfolio offers proven, next-generation technology that leads with high-power turbines to enable high-quality scale and drive decarbonisation through more affordable and sustainable renewable energy generation. This includes more than 1,200 operational units of its 6 MW platform, the most widely deployed onshore wind turbine among all OEMs offering nameplates above 5 MW.
