Toshiba, Hitachi, others to invest $1.53 billion on wind power - Nikkei

Toshiba Corp, Hitachi Zosen Corp, JFE Steel Corp and three other companies plan to invest 120 billion yen over a decade to set up offshore wind turbines, the Nikkei reported.

Potential sites for the project, which will have a production capacity of 300,000 kilowatts, include areas off the coast of the Kyushu region in southern Japan, the newspaper said.

Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd, Toa Corp and Toyo Construction Co Ltd are the other companies, the Japanese business daily said.

Funds will be raised through a special-purpose company and project financing, the Nikkei said.

Japan hopes to begin building commercial offshore wind farms, following in the footsteps of Europe, especially world leader Britain.

The Japanese environment ministry has estimated the country can eventually build 1,600 gigawatts of offshore wind power capacity.

Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012