Society

Japan schedules four more offshore wind auctions for 2020

Jul 28 (4coffshore.com) - On 21st July 2020, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) along with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) has confirmed that it will launch auctions four offshore wind sites.

This announcement builds on the designations made in July 2019, which included the above sites as 'advanced sea areas' alongside a floating site off Goto City, Nagasaki Prefecture é•·å´ŽçœŒäº”å³¶å¸‚æ²–.

The tender for the Goto offshore wind farm opened in June 2020 and will close on 24th December 2020. It is the first development to take place under Japanâ€™s offshore wind promotion law, which came into force April last year. A winner will be announced in June 2021. The wind farm will have a minimum capacity of 16.8 MW, with a feed-in tariff of 36 yen/KWh.

Earlier this month the government also designated a further 10 areas for future offshore wind development under general sea law. Of these areas four are considered to be 'promising areas' and wind and geological surveys are expected to start immediately as well as the formation of councils to conduct public consultations. The new promising areas include two off the coast of Aomori and one off Happo Town and Noshiro City, Akita Prefecture in northern Japan, and one off the coast of Nagasaki in the south.

The Japanese government currently has a target of 820 MW installed by 2030. However, last week, at a government dialogue event, the (JWPA) put forward proposals for long term offshore wind targets. The organisation is lobbying for 10 GW by 2030 and 30-45 GW by 2030, with an annual target of 2-4 GW.

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