French company BW Ideol has signed a joint development agreement with ENEOS Corporation, Japan’s largest oil refiner and distributor, to develop a site-specific commercial-scale floating offshore wind farm off Japan based on BW Ideol’s patented Damping Pool® technology.
The two companies will collaborate very closely and contribute to the early commercialization of cost-competitive floating offshore wind power in Japan.
BW Ideol is the only floating technology provider with two full-scale assets in operation in two strategic and pioneering markets for floating wind (France and Japan).
Japan’s offshore wind projects are currently being developed under the Act on Promoting the Utilization of Sea Areas for the Development of Marine Renewable Energy Power Generation Facilities, and it is said that the potential of floating offshore wind turbines is three times greater than that of fixed bottom offshore wind as waters around Japan tend to quickly become very deep a few km from shore. Floating offshore wind has the potential to substantially contribute to achieving carbon neutrality and reducing the cost of energy transition.
ENEOS’ renewable energy business is central to the group strategy and it is developing mega solar power plants (18 sites, approx. 46MW), wind power plants (2 sites, approx. 4MW) and biomass power plants (1 site, approx. 68MW) across Japan.
By Jake Frith
