Fuji Heavy to sell wind turbine generator business to Hitachi

Japanese transportation conglomerate Fuji Heavy Industries has agreed to sell its wind-turbine business to electronics company Hitachi for JPY1bn($12m).

The companies in a joint statement stated that they plan to complete the sale by July 1 this year and will begin discussions on the specific terms of the agreement, reports Bloomberg.

On completion of the transaction, Hitachi will consolidate the resources of the two companies which will enhance the design and development capability, and integrate the manufacturing and distribution.

Hitachi plans to combine its power control technologies as well as the system linkage and stabilisation technologies with Fuji’s downwind type turbine technologies.

The move will see the company expanding further into the renewable energy market.

In 2003, Hitachi and Fuji co-developed a 2,000kW level downwind type power generation system which was installed in Ibaraki Prefrecture, Japan in December 2005.

The companies also delivered a total of 25 units of wind power generation systems at six sites throughout the country.

The downwind type turbine is a wind turbine installed with its rotor under the lee of the tower.

The power generator and the power control component was designed and manufactured by Hitachi which also sold and installed the wind power system while FHI designed and manufactured the nacelle, blade, and tower.