Japan's industry ministry will open bidding for an area off Akita, northern Japan, for the development of an offshore wind farm while designating four "promising areas" and identifying 10 as potentially suitable for development, it said in a statement.
The offshore wind power market in Japan is expected to grow after the government introduced a law in 2019 to develop wind farms and set a goal last year of installing up to 10 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind capacity by 2030, and 30-45 GW by 2040.
The ministry plan was to identify and auction off areas capable of generating 1 GW of offshore wind power a year. But only the 360 megawatts (MW) Happo-Noshiro area off of Akita was selected for auction this time.