Japan Launches Its First Commercial Floating Offshore Wind Farm at Goto
Japan’s first commercial floating offshore wind farm is now in operation, a resilient sign of the island nation’s move toward renewable energy despite several setbacks.
The Goto Offshore Wind Farm has been completed after more than four years of development. The eight wind power turbines, averaging about 2.1 MW capacity per unit, are installed off the west coast of Japan near Goto City in Nagasaki Prefecture.
The wind farm uses a hybrid spar-type floater with a steel upper section and a concrete lower section, designed and constructed by TODA. Original ownership of Goto Offshore Wind Farm LLC is a joint venture of ENEOS Corp., Osaka Gas, Kansai Electric Power Corp., INPEX Corp., Chubu Electric Power and TODO Corp.
Many local companies participated in the wind farm construction and are expected to contribute to its operations and maintenance. The electricity generated by the facility will be supplied preferentially to retail electricity providers, supporting local energy production for local consumption.
The Goto Offshore Wind project originally was slated to be commissioned into operation in 2024, but defects in the hybrid spars caused delays in construction, according to reports.
Japan initiated legislation to support offshore wind development in 2019. Goto is the first project certified by the nation’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism under the Marine Renewable Energy Sea-Area Utilization Act.
Japan had less than 100 MW of installed wind power capacity as of 2020 and has set goals of close to 10 GW by 2030 and 30 to 45 GW by 2040.
The island nation primarily utilizes fossil fuels for its electric power generation but must import much of those resources from coal and natural gas producing nations.
The U.S. Trump Administration recently enacted several barriers to offshore wind development, including issuing stop-work orders on several east coast projects far into the construction phase.
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EnergyTech Staff
Rod Walton is head of content for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 17 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.
Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.
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