floating offshore wind farm The Fukushima nuclear disaster,
sparked by the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan last
March, has led the Japanese government to embrace a safer energy
source: offshore wind. Japan seeks to expand its wind energy
capacity and compete with European markets in the brand new
field of floating offshore wind technology. The country plans to
build a pilot floating wind farm with six 2-Megawatt turbines,
and then scale up to 80 floating turbines off the Fukushima
coast by 2020. While offshore wind has begun to be used in
Europe, to date, it has been dependent on shallow enough water
to stabilize the foundation. There is currently an international
race to develop floating offshore wind farms, which are the next
big step in offshore wind energy as they will allow for offshore
wind development even in deeper water. Floating offshore wind
designs are being field tested in the North Sea and Portugal.
(Check out this video describing how one type of floating wind
turbine is designed a