Will Plan for 1,000-Megawatt Offshore Windfarm for Fukushima be Model for Japan?

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Fukushima prefecture in Japan is planning for complete energy self-sufficiency by 2040, using only renewable power sources. The plan is to build 143 wind turbines by 2020 on platforms off the coast of Fukushima, where the catastrophic tsunami and earthquake damaged the Daiichi nuclear reactor in March 2011.

The offshore windfarm will generate 1 gigawatt (MW) of power when completed, according to New Scientist, and is part of a national plan to increase renewable energy resources following the post-tsunami shutdown of the nation's 54 nuclear reactors, of which only two are now operating.

The first stage of the Fukushima project will be the construction of a 2-MW turbine, a substation and an undersea cable installation. The turbine will stand 200 meters tall. If successful, further turbines will be built subject to the availability of funding.

To avoid the investment required to anchor the turbines to the sea bed, buoyant steel frames will be used that will be stabilized with ballast and anchored to the 200 meter-deep continental shelf with mooring lines.

The plan is to supply electricity to the grid when the offshore installation is running at full power. This will reduce transmission costs, as Fukushima's two nuclear power plants are connected to the grid.

Project manager Takeshi Ishihara of the University of Tokyo insists that the area's seismic activity won't be an issue for the security of the turbines. His team has carried out computer simulations and water tank tests to verify the safety of the turbines--not just in the event of an earthquake or tsunami, but in other extreme conditions, such as a typhoon.

The local fishing industry, which was badly hit by the nuclear disaster, is also concerned about the effect the windfarm could have on its livelihood. Ishihara contends that the project could be run as a "marine pasture."

This week, a delegation of Japanese companies involved in nuclear power is in Singapore, selling the virtues of their post-Fukushima nuclear technology and its safety features to a Southeast Asian audience. The region is set to go significantly nuclear over the next 30 years. The Fukushima windfarm project has obvious merit and motivation, given the special circumstances surrounding the site. But will it affect Japan's overall thinking on the 52 idled reactors or its nuclear project future?

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