As of today, the UK, Norway, Portugal, China and Japan are the top five markets in total net floating wind installations.
With Japan’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm achieving commercial operations at the beginning of 2023, the 140 MW Akita Noshiro Offshore Wind project marks a new milestone for the
Japanese wind industry and signals the start of a rapid scale-up of Japan’s offshore wind capacity. The current cumulative offshore installed capacity stands at 136 MW at the end of 2022, leaving a big gap
to fill if Japan wants to achieve its target of 10 GW installed capacity by 2030, as outlined in the Vision for the Offshore Wind Power Industry.
Although the rate of offshore deployment is far from ideal, Japan is a huge offshore wind market that is too important to miss. Japan has the sixth-longest coastline in the world
with massive uncaptured floating wind resources. It also has a long history of heavy industry manufacturing capability and expertise that can effectively be built upon to position the country as the regional offshore wind hub.
The government has taken proactive steps in recent months to explore the possibility of developing offshore wind within the Exclusive Economic
Zone (EEZ) and to unlock the industrialisation opportunity offered by floating offshore wind.