Wind Farms Survive in Japan

We have all heard about the nuclear crisis in Fukushima and are anxiously waiting to see how it plays out. But how many of us have heard that the Japanese wind industry is still functioning and powering regions?

Even though experts previously claimed that the wind turbines in Japan would not be able to survive a major earthquake, all of the wind turbines have survived and most are fully operational. In fact, electricity companies have asked wind farm owners to step up their operations as much as possible.

According to an article by Kelly Rigg from the HuffPost Green:

“Eurus Energy Japan says that 174.9MW with eight wind farms (64% of their total capacity with 11 wind farms in eastern part of Japan) are in operation now. The residual three wind farms (Kamaishi 42.9MW, Takinekoshirai 46MW, Satomi 10.02MW) are stopped due to the grid failure caused by the earthquake and Tsunami. Satomi is to re-start operations in a few days. Kamaishi is notorious for tsunami disaster, but this wind farm is safe because it is located in the mountains about 900m high from sea level.”

Despite the power grid failures in several wind farms, they did survive and are expected to be fully operational in the near future.

What do you think this means for the future of wind energy?

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