Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (“Mitsui”, Head Office: Tokyo, President and CEO: Tatsuo Yasunaga) and EDF Renewables (“EDFR”), a subsidiary of leading French power company EDF Group, have jointly established a consortium and have been pursuing an onshore wind power generation project in the city of Taza in the Kingdom of Morocco. On September 2, a financing agreement that had been concluded between the consortium and the project financing banks, including Japan Bank for International Cooperation, several commercial banks (for which loan insurance is planned to be partially provided by Nippon Export and Investment Insurance), and a local bank in Morocco, entered into force. With the said financing, a power generation company and a construction and operation management company, in both of which Mitsui has a 40% stake, will commence construction of the wind power generation facility in September, 2020.

The onshore wind power generation plant with a power generation capacity of 87.2 MW is scheduled to become operational in 2022, and the power generation company will sell the power generated over a 20-year period under a long-term power purchase agreement with Morocco’s electric power and water corporation, the Office National de l’Electricité et de l’Eau Potable (“ONEE”). The estimated total cost of the project will be approximately EUR140 million. Mitsui will engage in efficient development and operation of the project in partnership with EDFR which owns the remaining 60%.

This project aligns with the electricity generation policy of the government of Morocco, which aims to increase the percentage of renewable energy to 52% by 2030. Demand for energy is expanding in step with global economic and population growth, and Mitsui has taken on the dual challenges of meeting this demand while at the same time improving energy quality through a shift to clean energy resources. Mitsui will contribute to the creation of a sustainable, eco-friendly society through environmentally friendly power generation business.

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