News Article on 15th Dec. 2020 Government targeted on the achievement of the installation of 30~45GW offshore wind power in Japan by 2040

The Japanese government started in earnest to increase the number of offshore wind turbines. They would like to set the offshore wind power as main power supply in Japan in the future.

Regarding the atomic power plant, 1 plant generate 1 GW power, which corresponds to energy consumption of 300,000 houses. Thus, 45 GW is quite large power output (although wind power plant does not generate power on a calm day).

In Europe, a lot of wind power generators are built on the North Sea. In this area, a mild breeze constantly blows. And the depth is shallow. Therefore, this is typical area suitable for building offshore wind turbines and generating power with them.

On the other hand, the sea around Japan has complex configuration. To make matters worse, Japan experiences a lot of typhoons every year. It means that Japan has more technical problems to overcome than the other countries.

However, some countries do not have sea at all around them. Compared to such countries, we can say that Japan still has advantages. I hope some Japanese enterprises overcome the problems and the target government has set will be achieved.

The second council by the Japanese government and private sectors to enforce competitive strength of the industry of offshore wind power.
https://www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/energy_environment/yojo_furyoku/002.html
(In Japanese)

By the way, usually, atomic power plants are also built by the sea or by the river because they need a lot of water resources to cool hot water inside the piping of the plant which is used for power generation.

That is why atomic power plants are built on the shore. Japan has topographical advantages not only for offshore wind power generation but also atomic power plant.