Equinor has teamed up with Jera and J-Power to jointly participate in what will be the first offshore wind auction in Japan.

They will evaluate and work towards submitting a joint bid in the upcoming auction, which is expected to start within the next few months, with bid submissions taking place six months after the auction.

The Japanese Government has dedicated Yurihonjo and Noshiro, two areas offshore the northern Japanese prefecture of Akita, as promotional zones for offshore wind.

They each represent an area for bottom-fixed offshore wind farms of around 400MW and 700MW respectively.

Jens Økland, Senior Vice President for Business development in New Energy Solutions at Equinor said: “Japan has a high potential to develop a market for offshore wind. Their ambitions to increase their renewable energy sources from today’s 15-16% to about 22-24% by 2030 hereunder a target of 10GW wind capacity to meet their climate change commitments and become more energy independent, present exciting opportunities.

“The opportunities long term are within both bottom fixed and floating offshore wind as waters in Japan are on average deeper than in other parts of the world. With Equinor being the leading floating offshore wind developer, we have the competence and technical skill needed and are ready to contribute long term to the country’s ambitious offshore wind plans.”