2023 Volume 79 Issue 18 Article ID: 23-18177
Offshore wind power generation is being introduced mainly in Europe and the Japanese government is also preparing to start an offshore wind power generation project. Among them, the coastal areas of Murakami City and Tainai City in Niigata Prefecture were designated as the promotion zone in September 2022, and procedures are currently underway to select a project operator. According to NEDO, the average annual offshore wind speed within the promotion area in Niigata Prefecture is expected to be stable. However, the offshore winds increase in winter and calm down in summer, furthermore, the southern part of the sea area faces a plain, while the northern part faces a hilly area and may be strongly affected by the topography. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the differences in power generation capacity due to seasonal changes and differences in construction sites. In this study, the characteristics of offshore winds were determined for different seasons and different locations. The offshore wind information was obtained from the Meso Spectral Model which is supplied by the Japan Meteorological Agency, and five years of ground surface data were converted to 100 m above ground level at the windmill location.
