Brian Farrell | Open moment | Getty Images
RWE Renewables and Kansai Electric Power have signed an agreement whereby the two companies will “jointly study the feasibility of a large-scale floating wind project” in the waters off the coast of Japan.
In a statement issued Monday, SWE Utermöhlen of RWE Renewables said his company saw “great potential for floating wind farms around the world, but especially in countries with deeper coastal waters, such as Japan.”
In fact, the project announced Monday is not the only one in Japan focused on floating offshore wind energy. In July, BW Ideol, a self-proclaimed “clean technology company,” said it had signed a joint development agreement with energy company ENEOS Corporation to develop a “large-scale floating wind farm” in the waters off the coast of Japan.
In June, Japanese authorities said a consortium of six companies – Toda Corporation, Osaka Gas, Kansai Electric Power, ENEOS Corporation, INPEX Corporation and Chubu Electric Power – had been selected to develop a 16.8-megawatt floating wind farm. in waters off the coast of the city of Goto, Nagasaki Prefecture. There were no other bidders for the project.
Floating offshore wind turbines are different from bottom-fixed offshore wind turbines rooted to the seabed. By contrast, RWE describes floating turbines as “deployed on floating structures that are fixed to the seabed with mooring lines and anchors.”
One of the advantages of floating turbines is that they can be installed in deeper water compared to those fixed to the bottom. As the Carbon Trust points out, one advisory firm said: “The farthest places off the coast … tend to benefit from a more consistent wind resource, which means floating wind can produce higher yields.”
Floating offshore wind energy is still in its early stages of development and costs will need to be reduced in the future. It was only in 2017 that Norwegian energy Equinor, one of the major oil and gas players, opened Hywind Scotland, a 30-megawatt facility it calls “the first large-scale floating wind farm”.
For its part, RWE, based in Germany, is already working on three demonstration projects in Spain, the United States and Norway. It is also being studied whether fixed-scale offshore wind projects are feasible in some parts of Japan.
In another announcement, also released Monday, RWE said it would reorganize its renewables business. Under the new structure, its offshore and onshore renewables businesses will be managed separately. Utermöhlen will be responsible for RWE’s offshore wind division, with Silvia Ortín Rios leading the terrestrial and solar photovoltaic wind energy.
The collaboration between RWE and Kansai Electric Power comes after Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry released a draft of its sixth strategic energy plan last month.
According to research and consulting firm Wood Mackenzie, the draft included “significant changes” to the country’s targets regarding its combined power generation during fiscal year 2030.
“Included in the draft targets is a significant increase in the renewable and nuclear holdings of the generation mix and hydrogen / ammonia is mentioned for the first time,” said Lucy Cullen, chief analyst at Wood Mackenzie, in late July. . .
This plan is not without obstacles. “Our current outlook on renewable energy is 30% by 2030, so 36% of the proposed renewable energy is an extension,” Cullen said, referring to the draft goal that renewable energy they had 36% to 38% of the power generation share. “It can only be done with additional government support.”
Of the draft nuclear target, Cullen called it “perhaps the most critical and uncertain component.”
“METI continues to support the core and maintains the previous target of 20-22%,” he said. “Security regulations, ongoing opposition and rising costs continue to affect reboots to date and make this goal incredibly difficult to meet. Our prospects for reboots remain very risky in our view.”