Japan's JERA to pay $1.6B to buy Belgium's offshore wind leader Parkwind

Japanese energy company JERA said Wednesday it reached a definitive agreement in Belgium to acquire wind energy developer Parkwind, the nation's largest offshore wind energy developer.

JERA, a joint venture between Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings and Chubu Electric Power, reached an agreement with Belgium's Virya Energy to buy the wind energy company for roughly $1.6 billion. Viyra had steered Parkwind to the top of Belgium's offshore wind energy portfolio, with four projects combining for 771 megawatts.

Construction is already underway for a 257 MW facility in Germany and there are further plans for a total of 4.5 gigawatts in the broader European economy.

"Parkwind is highly complementary with JERA's offshore wind strategy and ambitions, and we look to empower Parkwind to deliver on our vision and strategy," Nathalie Oosterlinck, an offshore wind executive at JERA, said. "JERA has the ambition to significantly advance the expansion of renewable and low carbon energy on a global scale."

Japan is building up its wind energy footprint. Its Nikkei news agency reported last week that it's learned that U.S-based General Electric is looking to bring its largest offshore wind turbines to the Japanese market. At around 18 megawatts per installation, one turbine is enough to meet the energy demand of around 24,000 average households.

JERA played a roll in the development of the 128 MW Formosa project, the first ever commercial-scale offshore wind farm in Taiwan.

Belgium, for its part, is in the top 10 globally in terms of installed offshore wind energy capacity, the International Energy Agency estimates. But it's not yet fully moved away from fossil fuels. The total share of renewables on its grid more than doubled over the last decade, but that share represented only 13% of total energy demand as of 2020, the agency said.