The Japan Wind Power Association and Global Wind Energy Council, in partnership with Akita Prefecture, recently held a very successful Global Offshore Wind Summit. Sabik Offshore were delighted to attend the event.
Global Offshore Wind Summit in Akita, Japan | November 2022
The Japan Wind Power Association and Global Wind Energy Council, in partnership with Akita Prefecture, recently held a very successful Global Offshore Wind Summit. Sabik Offshore were delighted to attend the event.
This region is the location of Japan’s first ever commercial scale offshore wind farm, Akita Noshiro, which has recently been completed. As such, the overall mood at the summit was very positive, forward-thinking and optimistic.
It was an excellent opportunity for our regional expert, Jeremy Sanderson, to meet key members of Japan’s offshore wind industry. Our lighting and marking solutions are installed on the turbines of Akita Noshiro, and we recently received the official project certification from the Japanese Coast Guard, demonstrating that we can work effectively in Japan’s offshore wind sector.
To learn how we needed to ‘reinvent’ our Marine Lantern to suit a particular Japan-specific requirement, read the article on our website.
The Future of Offshore Wind in Japan
The event featured a wide variety of interesting presentations. One question, in particular, was at the forefront of attendees’ minds:
“How many more projects will there be, and when will they begin?”
Much is yet to be decided over the next two rounds of auctions for offshore wind farm sites. However, two things definitely stood out:
In addition to decarbonization, energy security has become a critical policy goal for the Japanese government. They have therefore committed to accelerating the pace at which offshore wind projects are due to start.
Japan has a large number of bottom-fixed and near-shore floating projects that are already in the pipeline for the next 10 to 20 years. Their next consideration is the floating offshore wind development potential of their Exclusive Economic Zone. This encompasses vastly more sea area than they had hitherto considered – stretching from close to Sakhalin in the north to within a few miles of Taiwan in the south, and from Tokyo in the southeast to the Ogasawara Islands in the Pacific.
Given the fact that Japan has massive offshore wind potential and no natural fossil fuel resources, offshore wind and nuclear power generation are rapidly taking center stage, and will continue to dominate Japan’s energy policy for many decades to come.
Sabik Offshore looks forward to further opportunities to share expertise with Japanese offshore wind professionals in the future as the nation’s market grows.
