Japan has officially unveiled a 7MW wind turbine that is the world’s largest offshore turbine to date.

The new turbine, which accompanies a 2MW wind turbine built in November 2013 as part of the Fukushima Wind Project, will tower 220m above the sea and will transmit electricity to the grid via submarine cable.

The government has allocated $405 million for the project, which allows turbines to float in water that is “too deep for traditional towers fixed to the seafloor”.

There are plans to add a third floating turbine with a generating capacity of 5MW later in the year, which will bring the total output capacity of the project to 14MW.

Offshore turbines, which have garnered a lot of support in Japan since the Fukushima nuclear power station disaster, offer more stable power generation than onshore models.

Japan now sees itself on the same level as Norway and Portugal when it comes to renewable energy, with about 2MW of offshore wind generating capacity.