The pre-assembly work of wind turbine towers for the 140 MW Akita Noshiro, Japan’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, has started at Akita Port.
The project comprises 20 Vestas V117 – 4.2 MW wind turbines to be installed off Noshiro Port, and 13 Vestas units off Akita Port.
In December 2021, SAL’s vessel, loaded with the first batch of wind turbine parts for the offshore wind farm, arrived at Akita Port.
The Akita Noshiro project is being developed by a consortium led by Marubeni which also includes Obayashi Corporation, Tohoku Sustainable & Renewable Energy, Cosmo Eco Power, The Kansai Electric Power, Chubu Electric Power, The Akita Bank, Ohmori, Sawakigumi Corporation, Kyowa Oil, Katokensetsu, Kanpu, and Sankyo.
Kajima Corporation is the project’s EPCI contractor.
The final monopile foundation for the offshore wind project was installed by Seajacks Zaratan in September last year.
Seajacks Zaratan is operated by Seajacks Japan LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the UK-based Seajacks International which was acquired by Eneti in August 2021.
Eneti’s jack-up will also install the wind turbines at the offshore wind farms.
Scheduled to be operational by the end of this year, the two offshore wind farms have a 20-year power purchase agreement with Tohoku Electric power for the entire output.