Offshore staff
TOKYO – JERA, J-Power, and Equinor have formed a consortium to jointly evaluate and work toward submitting a bid for offshore wind power projects in Japan.
The Japanese government has dedicated Yurihonjo and Noshiro, two areas offshore the northern Japanese prefecture of Akita, as promotional zones for offshore wind. Each represents an area for bottom-fixed offshore wind farms of about 400 MW and 700 MW, respectively.
The country’s first offshore wind auction is anticipated to start within the next months, with bid submission taking place six months after it opens. Once the auction is closed, the results are expected to be announced toward the end of 2021. Potential wind farms would then tentatively be operative post 2025, Equinor said.
Jens Økland, senior vice president for business development in New Energy Solutions in Equinor, said: “Japan has a high potential to develop a market for offshore wind. Their ambitions to increase their renewable energy sources from today’s 15-16% to about 22-24 % by 2030 hereunder a target of 10 GW wind capacity to meet their climate change commitments and become more energy independent, present exciting opportunities.
“The opportunities long-term, are within both bottom fixed and floating offshore wind as waters in Japan are on average deeper than in other parts of the world.”
09/09/2020
