Subsea robotic and hydrographic survey firm Rovco has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Japan’s Horizon Ocean Management (HOM).
Both parties will work together in analysing the potential for offshore wind in Japan, as well as develop programmes to keep critical infrastructure maintained.
HOM was formed last year by Mitsui and Hokutaku, a wind turbine maintenance conglomerate. Now, it aims ‘to build a world-class service model for subsea integrity and survey scopes across offshore wind developments in Japan’.
Rovco’s equipment will be used to carry out 3D assessments and data analysis to predict and prevent issues in maintaining wind farms, as well as setting out planning regimes.
“Combined with HOM’s profound understanding of the local market and regulatory requirements, the collaboration will pave the way for expansion across Japan’s coastlines,” Rovco says.
The Japanese government last year unveiled ambitious plans for offshore wind expansion, including targets of 10GW of offshore wind by 2030 and installations of a combined 30GW to 45GW by 2040, along with cost reduction targets.
The Japanese offshore wind sector is rapidly upscaling, and this is an exciting opportunity for us to work alongside Horizon Ocean Management, sharing vital insight into subsea asset integrity best practices, whilst introducing both established and emerging technologies that help capture, interpret and present key infrastructure performance against design criteria and ensuring operational uptime with overall economic benefit to our customers,” said Simon Miller, Rovco chief revenue officer.
Nobuyuki Takagi, Managing Director of HOM, said: “The European offshore wind supply chain has a wealth of marine and subsea experience via its long history in sectors such as oil and gas, and to realise our offshore wind deployment vision, HOM believes that learning from and working with the leading companies in these more advanced markets will ultimately help to establish middle to long-term local capability.”
