(Bloomberg) — Japan’s bid to install more floating
offshore wind capacity may be bolstered by the government’s
commitment to support the technology.
The city of Goto in Nagasaki prefecture and Toda Corp., a
Tokyo-based construction company, were picked by the Ministry of
the Environment to study community acceptance and environmental
impact on the construction of a wind farm, the ministry said in
a statement Tuesday.
The company and the city have submitted plans to set up
floating wind turbines around two islands with a combined
capacity of 522 megawatts, according to the ministry statement.
The ministry, which has set aside about 158 million yen
($1.3 million) for the study project to help local governments
take a lead in wind projects for the year starting in April,
also picked three other groups, according to the statement.
The northern prefecture of Iwate and the town of Hirono
plan to work together to set up a 200-megawatt offshore wind
farm, according to the statement. The ministry will also support
a plan to build a 700-megawatt offshore wind farm by the city of
Kitakyushu in Fukuoka prefecture. In both projects, turbines
will be fixed to the bottom of the sea.
Tottori prefecture in western Japan and SB Energy Corp., a
unit of SoftBank Corp., were also picked for their plan to build
a 30-megawatt onshore wind farm, according to the statement.
Japan has two floating offshore projects operating at the
moment. Goto is home to a 2-megawatt floating wind turbine set
up by a consortium led by Toda. Another 2-megawatt turbine is
installed off the coast of Fukushima prefecture as part of a
project led by Marubeni Corp.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Chisaki Watanabe in Tokyo at
cwatanabe5@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at
landberg@bloomberg.net
Iain Wilson, Abhay Singh