Toda begins commercial operation of Japan’s first floating windfarm

Toda Construction announced on Monday that their consortium had started 'commercial operations' at the Goto offshore?wind?farm located in Nagasaki,?southern?Japan. This marks the country’s first commercial floating?wind project.

The floating wind farm, which has a capacity of 16.8 megawatts (MW), is the first facility to be certified by a new law enacted by the land and industry ministries to promote the sector. Japan wants to increase its renewable energy capacity in order to meet the 2050 goal to become carbon neutral.

The Goto Floating Wind Farm Consortium, led by 'Toda, and including five other companies, 'including Eneos and?Osaka Gas uses a hybrid spar type floater, with a steel top section and a cement lower section.

Toda said that the hybrid spar-type floating technology is the first commercial application in the world.

The Japanese government aims to build 10 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2030 in order to boost energy security and create cleaner energy. However, the sector is facing increasing uncertainty due to rising costs and developer withdrawals.

The country is also targeting a pipeline of 45-GW offshore winds by 2040. This includes 15 GW and more floating wind in its exclusive economic zone – the sixth largest in the world. (Reporting and editing by MrigankDhaniwala; Yuka Obayashi)

(source: Reuters)