The blades of "Kusatsu Dream Windmill" being removed (2:14 p.m., January 28, Oroshimo-cho, Kusatsu City, Shiga Prefecture) = Drone footage

Suspended since April of 2014, demolition began on the wind power plant "Kusatsu Yume Fusha," or Kusatsu Dream Windmill Farm, in Oroshimo-cho, Kusatsu City, Shiga Prefecture, on January 28 and its three blades were removed. Troubled by successive malfunctions and a wind power shortage, the symbol on the shore of Lake Biwa has finished its role as a familiar landmark.

Kusatsu City spent 300 million yen to build the wind farm in 2001. Including the tower, the windmill reached 95 meters in height and the three blades were 70 meters in diameter. The windmill with a capacity of generating 1,500 kilowatts of electricity had the largest scale per unit in Japan when it was completed.

After the first five years of operation, the facility was in the black. However, it has been facing "unfavorable winds" since 2006, when maintenance costs exceeded the value of the power generation once it was converted into money, running up a deficit of approximately 250 million yen, including construction costs. Kusatsu City finally made the decision to remove it as the windmill reached the end of its service life last year.

The demolition work will continue until late February. An approximately three-meter-high section of the tower will remain, and be turned into a monument at the end of April.