Japan Selects Winner of First Offshore Wind Auction

Japan has selected the developer of the country’s first commercial floating offshore wind farm.

Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) selected the consortium of six companies led by Toda Corporation to build a 16.8 MW floating wind project offshore Goto City, Nagasaki Prefecture.

The other companies behind the Goto City Offshore Wind Power Generation LLC consortium are ENEOS Corporation, Osaka Gas, Kansai Electric Power, INPEX, and Chubu Electric Power.

The consortium was the only bidder in this auction, the ministries said.

Japan opened the auction in June 2020, offering the acreage off Goto City for the development of a small-scale floating wind farm.

The auction closed at the end of December 2020.

This was Japan’s first offshore wind auction since the new Renewable Sea Area Utilization Law came into power in April 2019.

The area off Goto was one of the eleven zones identified by the two ministries and the Port Authority of Japan as potentially suitable for the development of offshore wind farms.

The ongoing auction for the development of fixed-bottom projects in the two areas off Akita and one off Chiba has already attracted much more attention, including the bids from the consortium of Ørsted, Japan Wind Development Co. (JWD), and Eurus Energy, the consortium of Ørsted and TEPCO Renewable Power, and the consortium of JERA, Equinor and Electric Power Development (J-Power).