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World's first floating wind turbine arrives in Fukushima

19 Comments

Fukushima, site of the stricken Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and one of the areas hardest hit by the Tohoku earthquake of March 11, 2011, has now become home to the world's first floating wind turbine power generators.

The turbine, to be used for generating power off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture, was towed out of Tokyo Bay on June 28 to a deep-sea site where it arrived on July 1. The turbine and its platform are to form part of an experimental, floating power sub-station, according to TV Asahi.

The turbine, made by Hitachi Ltd and assembled in Chiba, is expected to produce 2 megawatts of electricity, enough to power around 600 homes. The turbine is 80 meters in diameter and is mounted on a 32-meter steel submersible structure manufactured by Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding.

The wind farm project was reportedly commissioned by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and has been dubbed “Fukushima Future.” The rig is to be attached to the seabed by iron chains at a site around 20 kilometers off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture on around July 20, after the wiring work is complete.

The turbine is expected to start operating in mid-October.

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19 Comments
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I saw the Tugs pulling it out of Tokyo Wan, I was wondering where they were taking it.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Not the "worlds first" by any stretch. Norway (2009) Portugal (2011) and the U.S. (May 2013) have deployed and commissioned offshore wind turbines.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Now get ready for an onslaught PR campaign of nothing but sunny commercials showing the one wind turbine 2 years after one of the worst nuclear accidents in history still sits smoldering just a few miles away.

"Hey, we Japanese are one with nature!"

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Correction, all of the above are FLOATING OFFSHORE WIND TURBINES

Sorry, I meant to say FLOATING offshore wind turbines. All of the installations I mention above are floating installations.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

" enough to power around 600 homes." when they are built that is. I thought the whole coastline in Fukushima is a wasteland ??

4 ( +5 / -1 )

How about all around the Japanese coast ? Then we wouldn't need any nuclear power...

2 ( +3 / -1 )

2megawatts thats waaay huge

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Stupid gimmick. Has anybody actually calculated the energy needed to build and maintain that thing? On balance, they are wasting energy. It is a pure feelgood operation.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

2 MW maximum output. They'll be lucky to get an average of 20% of that over the year.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

Wind Turbines are subsidised by ordinary people through extra hidden charges in their current Electricity Bills. They are inefficient and useless. The entire concept of "renewable" and "green" energy is built in the massive scam called Anthropogenic Global Warming, now in its death throes. We are currently in a period of glo al cooling, and have been since 1997. Wind Turbines are a blight on the environment. They kill birds, they are ugly, and not worth the expense of building them and running them. They only produce miniscule amounts of electricity, and on,y when the wind actually blows. Fossil fuel power stations are needed as back up when the stupid things dont lroduce anything. This is no use to the people of Fukushima or anywhere else.

-14 ( +1 / -15 )

Realist,

Whilst I agree with you somewhat on the point of renewable energy, AGW is not a scam. There has been no Global Cooling. Of the ten warmest years on record, all, save 1998, have been in the 21st Century. 1998 is of note because it had a massive El Niño event, which added to the record for that year. Climate skeptics try to start their records at 1998 because of that, as many subsequent years came under it in temperature. Still, 2005 and 2010 beat 1998 in the US National Climatic Data Center records.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Last year wind power produced 2.5 percent share of the total global electricity production and growing fast. While nuclear produced 13 percent with its share declining even faster.

Nuclear power doesn't make economic sense unless supported by the government, Wind power does.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

minello7JUL. 03, 2013 - 05:53PM JST " enough to power around 600 homes." when they are built that is. I thought the whole coastline in Fukushima is a wasteland ??

LOL Too correct!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Why only one? Let's build fleets of these and power up homes along the coast, like in TOKYO for instance. A good start, and I also agree with minello about questioning why this is off coast Fukushima? Is it providing power to the npp now that it is shot? Would be extremely ironic.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Let's see what happens when a tethered floating structure encounters a tsunami. If it is far enough from the coast, maybe it will work where the tsunami induced sea level change is only a few feet. The power output is miniscule compared to the power plant which put out hundreds of MW.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This makes me happy. But it will be interesting to see what the actual power output is in the field. Hopefully, it will be a success and many more can be created around Japan.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Squidbert,

Wind, like many other renewables, can be cheaper at the generating side, but require massive investment, usually from the government, to provide the power smoothing and power storage needed to deliver that power reliably and safely. If that investment is not made, then you can have a situation like Germany's neighbours are experiencing - when German wind power is producing more power than it's grid can accept, it gets pushed into their neighbours' grid - destabilising it.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This makes me happy. But it will be interesting to see what the actual power output is in the field. Hopefully, it will be a success and many more can be created around Japan.

Japan has huge wind resources and it is the future energy for Japan. When you are costal you have a natural breeze (air circulation) that powers these things.

Floating turbines are seen as a next logical step in offshore wind development. Standard offshore turbines are nearly always installed in waters less than 30 meters deep, but deeper water accessible only with floating turbines could offer even better wind as well as fewer stakeholder and aesthetic conflicts. A couple of demo floating projects have launched in Europe, one by Energias de Portugal and Principle Power off Portugal and the world’s first, in 2009, Statoil’s Hywind.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Expandable microwave power plants in space will be better and will last centuries in an vacuum environment but Obayashi need to build the space elevator not in 40 years but now :)

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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