14 DAY TRIAL // A wind turbine installed off the coast of Japan's Fukushima prefecture started generating power this Monday. The country's high officials maintain that the wind turbine stands as proof that the country meant what it said when it announced that it was ready and willing to embrace environmentally friendly energy sources.
More precisely, the installation of this turbine is supposed to be the first step of an extreme green makeover that the site of the Fukushima nuclear plant is expected to undergo in the years to come.
“Fukushima is making a stride toward the future step by step. Floating offshore wind is a symbol of such a future,” Yuhei Sato, the current governor of Fukushima, told the press.
The turbine has been nicknamed “Fukushima Mirai.” According to Bloomberg, “mirai” translates as “future.”
The wind turbine installed in the waters off the coast of Fukushima is said to be located at a distance of roughly 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the nuclear plant.
It has an energy generating capacity of 2 megawatts and, should things go according to plan, it will soon get two, maybe even more “buddies.”
Thus, it appears that Marubeni Corp, i.e. the group that oversaw its installation, plans to add two more offshore wind turbines in the area in the not so distant future. These turbines would have an energy generating capacity of 7 megawatts.
As far as the country's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is concerned, it could happen that, at some point in the not so distant future, these waters will be home to an offshore wind farm totaling about 1,000 megawatts of energy generating capacity.
The Ministry details that, as much as ordinary folks might want to see an offshore wind farm take the place of the Fukushima nuclear plant, local fishermen must be consulted and asked for their approval before this project is given the green light.