Japan’s First Offshore Wind Farm Starts Up

The Noshiro Port offshore wind farm, Japan’s first such project, has started commercial operation on December 22, 2022.

Marubeni said last Thursday that the Noshiro Port offshore wind farm started operations based on the feed-in tariff program for renewable energy.

The Marubeni Corporation has been implementing this first utility-scale offshore wind power project in Japan at Akita Port and Noshiro Port in Akita Prefecture, through the Akita Offshore Wind Corporation, jointly owned with Obayashi Corporation, Tohoku Electric Power, Cosmo Eco Power, the Kansai Electric Power, Chubu Electric Power, The Akita Bank,Ohmori, Sawakigumi Corporation, Kyowa Oil, Katokensetsu, Kanpu, and Sankyo.

Akita Offshore Wind Corporation plans to operate and maintain the offshore wind farms for 20 years, with its base located at Noshiro Port.

According to Marubeni, since the start of construction of the wind farm in February 2020, installation of a total of 33 wind turbines at Akita Port and Noshiro Port was completed in September 2022, and commercial operation has been achieved almost on the original schedule.

The bottom-fixed offshore wind farm features 33 V117-4.2 MW wind turbines. Offshore installation services firm Seajacks International recently completed the installation of all 33 wind turbines.

The self-propelled jack up vessel Seajacks Zaratan carried out the work in collaboration with main installation contractor Kajima Corporation and turbine supplier Vestas Japan.

The 140MW project will power approximately 150,000 homes and mitigate over two million tons of GHG emissions over its expected useful life.

It is worth noting that Japan has plans to install up to 10 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 and up to 45 GW by 2040.

Eldina Jahic

rigzone.com