First Turbine Up at Japan’s First Commercial-Scale Offshore Wind Farm

The first of the total of 33 Vestas 4.2 MW wind turbines has been installed at the Akita Noshiro offshore wind farm in Japan, the country’s first commercial-size, fixed-bottom wind project.

After the installation vessel Seajacks Zaratan finished placing all the 33 monopile foundations at their respective locations is September last year, the same vessel embarked onto wind turbine installation and sailed out of the Akita Port with the first batch of Vestas turbines several days ago.

The 33 wind turbines will be installed across the project’s two sites in the port areas of Akita and Noshiro, with 20 Vestas units to spin off Noshiro Port and 13 off Akita Port.

Akita Noshiro is scheduled to be put into operation this year and, once up and running, it will provide electricity to Tohoku Electric Power, which has a 20-year power purchase agreement for the entire output of the offshore wind farm.

The 140 MW project is being developed by Akita Offshore Wind Corporation, a consortium led by Marubeni which also includes Obayashi Corporation, Tohoku Sustainable & Renewable Energy, Cosmo Eco Power, The Kansai Electric Power, Chubu Electric Power, The Akita Bank, Ohmori, Sawakigumi Corporation, Kyowa Oil, Katokensetsu, Kanpu, and Sankyo.

Kajima Corporation is the project’s EPCI contractor.

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