FYI
--
Japan to build world's largest offshore wind farm
15:19 16 January 2013 by Rob Gilhooly, Tokyo
It's goodbye nuclear, hello renewables as Japan prepares to build the world's
largest offshore wind farm this July.
By 2020, the plan is to build a total of 143 wind turbines on platforms 16
kilometres off the coast of Fukushima, home to the stricken Daiichi nuclear
reactor that hit the headlines in March 2011 when it was damaged by an
earthquake and tsunami.
The wind farm, which will generate 1 gigawatt of power once completed, is part
of a national plan to increase renewable energy resources following the
post-tsunami shutdown of the nation's 54 nuclear reactors. Only two have since
come back online.
The project is part of Fukushima's plan to become completely energy
self-sufficient by 2040, using renewable sources alone. The prefecture is also
set to build the country's biggest solar park.
The wind farm will surpass the 504 megawatts generated by the 140 turbines at
the Greater Gabbard farm off the coast of Suffolk, UK currently the world's
largest farm. This accolade will soon pass to the London Array in the Thames
Estuary, where 175 turbines will produce 630 megawatts of power when it comes
online later this year. The Fukushima farm will beat this, too.
Massive construction
The first stage of the Fukushima project will be the construction of a
2-megawatt turbine, a substation and undersea cable installation. The turbine
will stand 200 metres high. If successful, further turbines will be built
subject to the availability of funding.
To get around the cost of anchoring the turbines to the sea bed, they will be
built on buoyant steel frames which will be stabilised with ballast and
anchored to the 200-metre-deep continental shelf that surrounds the Japanese
coast via mooring lines.
Once the farm is running at full power, the intention is that it will supply
electricity to the powerful grid which Fukushima's two nuclear power plants
were connected to, reducing transmission costs.
Project manager Takeshi Ishihara of the University of Tokyo insists that the
area's seismic activity won't be an issue for the turbines. His team have
carried out computer simulations and water tank test to verify the safety of
the turbines not just in the event of an earthquake or tsunami but also in
other extreme conditions such as typhoons. "All extreme conditions have been
taken into consideration in the design," he says.
Another contentious issue is the facility's impact on the fishing industry,
which has already been rocked by the nuclear accident. Ishihara insists it is
possible to turn the farm into a "marine pasture" that would attract fish.
While there was some objections to the project by local people, Ishihara says
is confident he has won them round. "This is hard work, but will be resolved
this month," he says. "This project is important I think it is impossible to
use nuclear power in Fukushima again."
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