Is Japan ready for commercial offshore wind?
On a recent trip to Hokkaido in Japan, I had the chance to see the operational Ishikari Bay offshore wind farm, just to the west of Sapporo. At 112MW, it may seem small, at least to those in Europe, but Ishikari is very special for Japan. Upon its Commercial Operations Date on 1 January 2024 it became Japan's largest offshore wind farm . It's also the first to use 8MW turbines (the most recent projects, at the ports of Akita and Noshiro, used 4.2MW models). Ishikari Bay New Port Offshore Wind Farm, 2024 Despite enjoying 30,000km of coastline , and each gigawatt of offshore wind having the ability to shave an impressive $300m p.a. off the balance of trade figures for imported fossil fuel , Japan's installed capacity of offshore wind now sits at around 280MW, inclusive of test and demonstration projects. By comparison, the UK, another island nation amongst the ten largest EEZs , has almost 14GW . The gap has two main causes. Firstly, the UK's seabed topography is m...