Floating Wind Farm Starts Trial Run Off Japan

Japan’s first offshore floating wind farm begins trial operation off the coast of Goto Islands, Nagasake Prefecture.

A Japan Government energy ministry spokesperson said that diversifying energy sources in Japan has become a significant national issue after the radioactive disaster at Fukushima No.1 Nuclear Power Plant.

The operation of the wind farm is carried out by a technical team from Japan’s Environment Ministry, which installed the 100-kilowatte turbine equipped with an 11-meter rotor diameter on a 60-meter tower at the offshore facility situated about 1 km off the coast of Kabashima island, Goto Islands.

The ministry aims to make use this, the country’s first trial of a floating wind farm, as an opportunity for a wider development of national wind power generation.