Japan’s Shizen Energy said it will speed up plans to become a major green power player at home and abroad after unveiling an investment package of almost $500m from Canadian pensions giant CDPQ.
CDPQ will invest $135m in the Japanese developer and the two have agreed a “co-investment framework” that will see the Canadian group put up to $339m more behind projects in Japan and overseas.
The deal marks another big step into clean energy by CDPQ, which has also backed US renewables giant Invenergy and India’s Azure Power among others in the sector. The Canadian group gets a seat on the Shizen board following the investment.
Shizen Energy has emerged as one of Japan’s most ambitious renewables developers since it was founded in 2011 by a trio of wind power executives in the months following the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
The three founders and directors – Ken Isono, Masaya Hasegawa, and Kenji Kawado – said: “Shizen Energy has been striving to achieve its purpose of 'we take action for the blue planet', and we feel that even greater speed is required to resolve global warming and energy challenges.
“Through our collaboration with CDPQ, we will accelerate our global actions for the future of this Earth."
The company – which already has a joint venture with Germany’s Juwi – has so far been involved in development of 1GW of projects spanning wind, solar, small-hydropower and biomass, and has major ambitions elsewhere in Asia and as far afield as Brazil.
The scale of Shizen’s ambition was on full display in August when it emerged it was seeking permits for up to 18GW of offshore wind in the South American nation.
The developer has also reached accords with Taiwan’s Swancor and another Canadian, Northland Power, over offshore development in Japanese waters, and it is planning a “multi-hundred-megawatt” floating project there with sector pioneer BW Ideol.
Emmanuel Jaclot, executive vice-president and head of infrastructure at CDPQ, said: "This transaction in Japan is an important milestone in the deployment of CDPQ's long-term Asia-Pacific infrastructure strategy. Japan has a crucial role to play in the decarbonation of Asia.”
