Japan stops accepting bids in second round of offshore wind power ... - The Japan Times
Japan stops accepting bids in second round of offshore wind power tender | The Japan Times
The central government on Friday stopped accepting bids for a second major round of offshore wind power tenders to build 1.8 gigawatts of capacity in four areas, with the result to be announced by the end of March.
Japan’s offshore wind power market is set to grow as the government aims to install up to 10 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030, and up to 45 GW by 2040, as part of its decarbonization push.
The latest bidding covers four areas, including a 700 megawatts (MW) farm off the coast of Murakami-Tainai in Niigata Prefecture and a 356 MW farm off the coast of Happo-Noshiro in Akita Prefecture.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.