The Japanese government aims to enshrine legislation “early next year” that would clear the way for development of industrial-scale floating wind power projects in its far-offshore exclusive economic zone (EEZ) beyond the island nation’s territorial waters, a senior government official has told Recharge.
Masatoshi Akimoto, the country’s vice-minister for foreign affairs, said opening the deepwater acreage, some 200 miles (320km) off the coast, for the construction of gigascale arrays would “absolutely accelerate” progress on Japan’s ambition to have 45GW of offshore wind plant installed by 2045.
