EXCLUSIVE: Wind Power System off Fukushima Performing Poorly

June 22, 2018

Fukushima Pref.- Japan's largest-scale offshore wind power generation facility, located off Fukushima Prefecture, has hardly ever reached its output capacity of 7,000 kilowatts, informed sources told Jiji Press on Thursday.

The turbine is operated in an experimental offshore power generation project of the industry ministry launched in fiscal 2011, soon after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.'s <9501> Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in the northeastern prefecture.

The ministry plans to continue the project until the end of fiscal 2018 in March 2019 in order to figure out an appropriate size of such a power generation facility, the sources said.

The project is undertaken by a consortium led by major trading house Marubeni Corp. <8002>. Other members include Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. <7011> and the University of Tokyo.

The group will try to operate the facility at its maximum output at the end of this year or later. In summer, however, its output is expected to be around only 4,000 kilowatts because winds tend to be mild in the season, the sources said.

The Fukushima government aims to increase the total capacity of offshore wind power generation facilities in the prefecture to 2 million kilowatts by fiscal 2030 as part of efforts to promote postdisaster reconstruction through renewable energy source development.

In the industry ministry project, a total of three floating wind turbines have been established some 20 kilometers off the prefecture. For this, central government expenditures totaling 58.5 billion yen have been secured over the years through fiscal 2018.

The 7,000-kilowatt facility, installed in 2015, reached its capacity only for six hours during a safety test in December 2017, the sources said.

The ministry will examine whether such a huge wind power generation facility can be put to practical use by using data obtained through the project, a ministry official said. Jiji Press