The Tokyo-based company has been angling to test the full-scale prototype –  which mates a three-bladed vertical axis Darrieus turbine with a Savonious ocean current device  –  in 50 metres of water off Karatsu, in Saga prefecture, and start selling produced electricity to regional utilty Kyushu Electric later next year.

The slimline unit, foreseen for powering remote islands, is calculated to have an ouput capacity of 500kW in winds of 13 metres per second (m/s), rising toward 1MW in velocities of 16m/s.

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