On February 14, 2025, the Hiroshima-based wind power engineering company Glocal released a “planning-stage document on primary environmental impact consideration” for a floating offshore wind power generation project off the coast of Shirashima in Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka Prefecture, for public viewing.
The project will consist of two to three turbines, 10 to 18MW each, and will be limited to a maximum 30MW total output, said the document prepared to meet the requirements set out in the Kitakyushu City Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance. Due to the project still being in early stage, the construction timeline has not been fixed yet. However, the company is aiming to begin construction in the summer of 2027 with commissioning expected a year later.
In late 2019, Glocal started the environmental impact assessment process for a two 6MW turbine fixed-bottom project limited to 9.9MW total in the same area. The fixed-bottom project has been scrapped at the assessment process’s methodology stage and replaced with the floating project instead. METI data shows the company has two FIT-certified projects totaling 10.4MW.
Glocal plans to construct the project in the vicinity of one of Japan’s floating offshore wind demonstration projects, a 3MW barge-type turbine installed by Marubeni and the New Energy and Industrial Development Organization (NEDO). Hibiki Wind Energy, a joint venture owned by Kyuden Mirai Energy, J-POWER, and three other partners, is developing the up to 220MW Kitakyushu Hibikinada Offshore Wind Farm in the area as well.
While offshore wind power is still in its early stages in Japan, METI is targeting to have 5.7GW installed by FY2030. The Japan Wind Power Association reported that there were seven operational projects with a combined capacity of 253.4MW as of the end of 2024. All but 5MW of the total is fixed-bottom.
