Japan's industry ministry will open bidding for an area off Akita, northern Japan, for the development of an offshore wind farm while designating four "promising areas" and identifying 10 as potentially suitable for development, it said in a statement.
The ministry plan was to identify and auction off areas capable of generating 1 GW of offshore wind power a year but only the 360MW Happo-Noshiro, off Akita, was selected for auction this time. The public auction for the Happo-Noshiro project could start in about four months. The new promising areas include three in the Sea of Japan - one each off Akita, Yamagata and Niigata in northern Japan and one in the Pacific Ocean, off Chiba, near Tokyo. For those areas, the preparation process will start immediately. (source Reuters)