Mitsubishi Corp has announced that it will withdraw from three offshore domestic wind farm projects due to a “significantly changed” business environment.

In 2021, a consortium led by Mitsubishi was the winning bidder in Japan’s first offshore wind tender for three offshore wind farms off the northeastern prefecture of Akita and Chiba prefecture, east of Tokyo.

The company secured the rights to develop the projects with a projected capacity of 1.76GW. All three bottom-fixed projects were set to be completed between 2028 and 2030.

However, the company has decided to bow out of the project due to soaring material costs brought on by the weaker yen and rising labour costs, making it impossible to guarantee profitability.

The three offshore wind zones will most likely be reopened for public re-bidding in the future, but this will delay Japan’s green energy goals. The country is aiming for 10GW of offshore wind energy by 2030 and 30–45GW by 2040.

Earlier this year, Mitsubishi recorded a 52.2bn yen ($354.31m) impairment charge on its domestic offshore wind projects.