OffshoreWIND.biz15 Jul 2026Innovation
Automatically composed with AI from the cited sources
A six-company Japanese consortium has installed a vertical-axis wind turbine with a 9.3‑metre rotor and a 1.7‑metre cylindrical floating foundation at a site in the bay of Iki City, Nagasaki Prefecture. The demonstrator has a maximum output below 20 kW, is held on station by three mooring lines, and will operate for one year starting July 2026 to verify technical feasibility against numerical and tank-test results before decommissioning and component inspection. The project is aimed at validating a simplified, low-centre-of-gravity design intended to reduce floating wind costs and build a domestic supply chain, with the results feeding into megawatt‑class systems.