JERA, the biggest energy technology firm in Japan, stated the 112-MW Ishikari Bay New Port offshore wind farm has entered business operation. The utility, together with Inexperienced Energy Funding Corp. (GPI), JERA’s companion within the venture, introduced the set up was commissioned on Jan. 1.
Ishikari Bay is now Japan’s largest offshore wind park. The location options 14 SG 8.0-167 DD generators manufactured by Siemens Gamesa Renewable Power, and is the primary wind energy facility in Japan to make use of generators of that 8-MW dimension. The generators are licensed to face up to each typhoon-force winds and seismic exercise, a typical prevalence in Japan. The wind farm is positioned off the west coast of the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
The venture additionally incorporates 180 MWh of battery power storage capability on the venture’s transformer substation. Energy is then despatched to Hokkaido Electrical Energy Community’s (HEPN’s) Nishi Sapporo Substation. HEPN has a 20-year settlement to buy the wind farm’s electrical energy.
JERA in a Jan. 4 information launch stated, “Bringing the venture to completion was potential due to the large cooperation and understanding prolonged by regional communities and authorities administrations together with Hokkaido Prefecture, Ishikari Metropolis, and Otaru Metropolis throughout the venture’s improvement and development.
“JERA and GPI are dedicated to envisioning the area’s future collectively via the promotion of renewable power initiatives. Going ahead, we plan to work along with the folks of Ishikari Metropolis, Otaru Metropolis, and the area to make sure each secure administration of the venture and regional improvement.”
GPI is a former Japanese affiliate of U.S. power developer Sample Power Group, which offered GPI to JERA and NTT Anode Power Corp final yr. GPI is a Japanese developer, proprietor, and operator of renewable power property.
A three way partnership between Shimizu Corp. and Nippon Metal Engineering was liable for offshore development of the wind farm, and Kajima Corp. did the venture’s onshore work.
Different Offshore Wind Initiatives
A JERA-led group additionally introduced it was among the many winners in Japan’s second offshore wind tender, the outcomes of which had been introduced in December. Japan’s trade and land ministries picked three teams that might develop and function offshore wind farms, because the nation works to have not less than 10 GW of offshore wind technology capability within the queue by 2030, and as a lot as 45 GW of capability in improvement by 2040.
JERA, as a part of a consortium together with Itochu, Tohoku Electrical Energy, and J-Energy, was awarded rights to construct a 315-MW wind farm off the coast of Oga-Katagami-Akita in Akita prefecture in northern Japan. A bunch together with Mitsui & Co., Germany’s RWE, and Osaka Gasoline is about to construct a 684-MW wind farm off the coast of Murakami-Tainai in Niigata prefecture in northern Japan. A 3rd group, comprised of Sumitomo Corp. and Tokyo Electrical Energy’s renewable power unit, received the tender for a 420-MW wind farm off the coast of Enoshima in Nagasaki prefecture in southwestern Japan. The three initiatives will probably be designed as bottom-fixed kind wind farms, with business operation set to start between June 2028 and August 2029.
Marubeni, a Japanese firm that develops offshore wind initiatives, launched the nation’s first business offshore wind operations in late 2022 and early 2023 at Noshiro port and Akita port. These two installations have mixed technology capability of about 130 MW.
—Darrell Proctor is a senior affiliate editor for POWER (@POWERmagazine).
