Windy news coming out of Japan!
According to the Japanese government, the country’s first renewable electricity-generating offshore wind wind farm will power up in January.
Of note is the fact that Japan’s feed-in tariffs (FITs) have just kicked in, meaning power generated from renewable sources will be sold at premium for the next two decades. Especially since the days of Fukushima Daiichi, this announcement signals the nation’s firm progress away from nuclear and other conventional power sources.
The 2.4 megawatt wind farm–off the Choshi coast near Tokyo–had been developing for some years, and is part of Japan’s broader strategy to harness renewable power sources. In May, six Japanese banks jointly purchased Seajacks, a British wind-powered generator manufacturer. The deal was worth $252 million. A second Japanese wind plant (2 megawatt capacity) is scheduled for development off the Kitakyushu coast in southwestern Japan.
Japan’s environment ministry claims that the country has adequate potential for almost 1,600 gigawatts of offshore wind power. In comparison, their present nuclear capacity is 46.15 gigawatts.
This new wind plant is being developed by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and Tokyo Electric Power of Fukushima notoriety.
