World’s largest offshore wind farm for Japan

Japan to build world’s largest offshore wind farm, New Scientist,   16
January 2013 by Rob Gilhooly, Tokyo It’s goodbye nuclear, hello
renewables as Japan prepares to build the world’s largest offshore
wind farm this July.

By 2020, the plan is to build a total of 143 wind turbines on
platforms 16 kilometres off the coast of Fukushima, home to the
stricken Daiichi nuclear reactor that hit the headlines in March 2011
when it was damaged by anearthquake and tsunami.

The wind farm, which will generate 1 gigawatt of power once completed,
is part of a national plan to increase renewable energy resources
following the post-tsunami shutdown of the nation’s 54 nuclear
reactors. Only two have since come back online.

The project is part of Fukushima’s plan to become completely energy
self-sufficient by 2040, using renewable sources alone. The prefecture
is also set to build the country’s biggest solar park.

The wind farm will surpass the 504 megawatts generated by the 140
turbines at the Greater Gabbard farm off the coast of Suffolk, UK –
currently the world’s largest farm. This accolade will soon pass to
the London Array in the Thames Estuary, where 175 turbines will
produce 630 megawatts of power when it comes online later this year.
The Fukushima farm will beat this, too…..
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23082-japan-to-build-worlds-largest-offshore-wind-farm.html

January 17, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Japan, renewable