The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has selected three promotion areas for the development of offshore wind projects in Japan, located off Saikai (Nagasaki prefecture, southern Japan), Murakami (Niigata, northern Japan) and Oga (Akita, northern Japan). The METI also designated five promising areas and 11 potentially suitable areas across the country. New auctions to select operators willing to develop wind in these areas will be launched a revision of bidding rules.
Japan held its last major round of offshore wind auctions in December 2021, in which it designated three Mitsubishi-led consortia to build the 819 MW Yurihonjo wind project offshore Akita Prefecture, the 479 MW Noshiro Mitane Oga project, also off Akita Prefecture, and the 391 MW Choshi project off Chiba Prefecture. Japan put new auctions on hold in March 2022 to revise auction rules.
Japan aims to expand offshore wind energy capacity to 10 GW by 2030 and 30-45 GW by 2040. At the end of 2021, Japan only had 65 MW of offshore wind installed capacity (but more than 4 GW for onshore wind).
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