Completion of Northwester 2 Offshore Wind Farm in Belgium

Sumitomo Corporation (Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director, President and Chief Executive Officer: Masayuki Hyodo), together with Parkwind N.V. (Head Office: Belgium; hereinafter, “Parkwind”, Note1) began full commercial operation on May 12, 2020 of the Northwester 2 offshore Wind Farm (hereinafter, “the Wind Farm”), developed and constructed in Belgium.

Against a backdrop of a growing sense of urgency over energy security and heightening environmental awareness, Europe has been promoting expanded use of renewable energy and electric power deregulation. Offshore wind farms in particular have many advantages compared to other renewable energy resources, such as reliable power supply, relatively little visual and spatial impact on land, and less noise pollution. In the future, it is expected that offshore wind farms will further spread as an eco-friendly means of generating power.

The Wind Farm is situated in the North Sea about 52 kilometers off the Belgian shore (where the sea is about 40m deep). Technological innovation is being harnessed by the European offshore wind power market to make increasingly larger wind turbines in the interest of improving power generation efficiency. The Wind Farm uses 23 state-of-the-art models of the world’s largest mass-produced wind turbines manufactured by the Danish firm MHI Vestas (generation capacity: 9.5MW, overall height: 190m). The Wind Farm thus has a total power generation capacity of 219MW to supply enough power to meet the demand of about 210,000 households over the project period of 25 years.

Sumitomo Corporation is involved in wind power projects in Japan, Europe, the US, South Africa and China, and is developing/operating three offshore wind farms in Belgium, two in the UK and two in France.

Sumitomo Corporation will leverage the knowledge and know-how it has cultivated in numerous countries by teaming up with Parkwind to safely operate the Wind Farm and to ensure a stable supply of electric power. It will also continue helping to conserve the global environment by actively undertaking wind power and other renewable energy projects in the future.

(Note 1) An offshore wind farm developer/operator under the auspices of the Colruyt Group, a major Belgian retail chain.

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■ Map of Wind Farm

■ Reference photos

■Sumitomo Corporation’s Material Issues
Sumitomo Corporation Group positions “Six Material Issues to Achieve Sustainable Growth with Society” as an important factor in developing business strategies and in the decision-making process for individual businesses. Going forward, we will pursue sustainable growth by resolving these issues through our business activities. This project especially contributes to “Achieving Harmony with the Global Environment”, “Contributing to the Development of Local Communities and industries” and “Establishing a Foundation for Comfortable and Enriching Lifestyles”.