A floating wind turbine of 2MW capacity started generating power near Nagasaki prefecture on Monday (October 28), Bloomberg informs.
This is a demonstration project, which is carried out by a group led by Toda Corporation for the Japanese Ministry of the Environment. Last year, the group installed a 100kW model of the floating wind turbine to test its capabilities. After replacing the test model with the 2MW turbine, the Ministry of Environment further plans to launch even larger floating projects by 2016.
Another project is scheduled to start operating in November. Namely, a group of 11 companies, headed by Marubeni Corporation has also installed a 2MW floating turbine 20 kilometers from Fukushima’s coastline in water depths of around 120 meters.
Ever since the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, Japanese companies have been investing energetic efforts to develop other forms of energy. These demonstration projects are part of an ambition to commercialize floating offshore wind technology.
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Offshore WIND Staff, October 31, 2013; Image: Kyoto University/Toda Construction