Japan builds world's largest wind farm

Japanese authorities are preparing to move forward with plans to build the world's largest offshore wind farm from July this year.

Japan has planned to build a total of 143 wind turbines in an offshore area, about 16km from the coast of Fukushima – where the Daiichi nuclear reactor meltdown caused by the earthquake and tsunami that shook the world in March 2011.

Once operational, the wind farm is expected to generate 1 gigawatt of electricity. It is part of a national project to boost renewable energy sources following the closure of 54 nuclear reactors after the Fukushima disaster. Only two of those reactors have since been restored.

The project is part of a plan to make Fukushima completely self-sufficient in electricity by 2040, using only alternative energy sources. The area is also expected to host Japan's largest solar park.

The first phase of the Fukushima offshore wind farm project will see the construction of a 2-megawatt turbine 200 meters high. If successful, other turbines will be built in stages until the project is completed, Japanese authorities have revealed.

By design, the turbines would be built on floating steel platforms, which would be anchored by ballast and anchors to the 200-meter-deep continental shelf surrounding Japan's coast.

When completed, the Japanese wind farm is expected to overtake the current “world’s largest” title from the Greater Gabbard wind farm off the coast of Suffolk, England, which has a capacity of 504 megawatts generated by 140 wind turbines. It will also soon surpass the London Array farm in the Thames estuary, where 175 turbines will generate 630 megawatts when it comes online later this year.

LY (According to Vietnamnet)