Turbines usually account for about 65% of project development costs, according to standard international models for onshore wind farms. But in Japan, turbines account for just 50% of project costs — and not because equipment costs are lower,  Steve Sawyer said this week.

“It’s quite the opposite. It’s because everything else costs so much,” Sawyer said at the Japan Renewable Energy Foundation’s (JREF) REvision2015 symposium in Tokyo, pointing to problems such as high engineering and construction expenses, as well as lengthy permitting procedures and unreasonable time lags between the inception of a project and the actual point of construction.

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