OFFSHORE WIND POWER POTENTIALS IN THE SETO INLAND SEA

Abstract

The Seto Inland Sea is an appropriate place for offshore wind power generation due to its features of vast shallow waters, numerous islands, calm ocean waves, steady breeze circulation and so on. In this study, offshore wind energy potential in the Seto Inland Sea is estimated based on the wind prediction data of LAWEPS, and the sea areas appropriate for offshore wind power generation are extracted by means of GIS analysis considering the constrained conditions such as wind speed, water depth, natural parks and ship lanes. The results of the estimation show that the maximum annual power generation is 247 TWh and the minimum is 32 TWh. In particular, the Suo-Nada area near the Kanmon Channel seems to be highly promising as the offshore wind power generation site.