Gearing Up for Japan’s Big Push into Floating Offshore Wind
Recent weeks have seen legislative moves by Japan’s government to exponentially expand the permitted area for offshore wind, an agreement with the United States to cooperate on floating offshore development and more than a dozen Japanese firms form a consortium to advance the technology required for wind power generation far from shore. All of this points to serious efforts to leverage the enormous potential for floating offshore wind in the deep waters found around the Japanese archipelago. But numerous challenges remain before such projects can start powering homes and businesses.
In mid-March, the cabinet announced an amendment to the Act on Promoting the Utilization of Sea Areas for the Development of Marine Renewable Energy Power Generation Facilities to “allow business operators to install marine renewable energy power generation facilities in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of Japan.”
A nation’s EEZ is an area extending 370 kilometres from its coast which is outside territorial waters but where it can carry out economic activities. Japan’s EEZ is approximately 10 times the size of its 430,000 square kilometres of territorial waters. The deeper waters in the EEZ require floating turbines, in contrast to the type that are fixed to the seafloor and can be deployed in the shallower seas closer to shore.
Floating on high
Another advantage of building wind farms far from shore is far lower potential for disruption of fishing grounds, an issue that the initial round of commercial projects is currently grappling with.
And the potential for floating offshore wind is truly enormous. A 2022 paper published in the journal Energy Conservation and Management estimated that floating wind farms alone could generate 50 times more power than Japan’s entire current consumption.
However, there are no commercial-scale floating wind farms yet operating anywhere, and in Japan just a couple of pilot projects are underway. But that is not the only hurdle for Japan’s planned use of its EEZ, according to Yuriy Humber, head of Japan NRG, an analyst firm specialising in the domestic energy sector.
“Once you get out to the EEZ, the rules are a little different and covered by international laws. Japan is arguing that there is nothing in the international agreements against offshore, but given the regional geopolitics it is not impossible for there to be objections,” says Humber. “Japan is announcing to the world that it has the right to develop offshore out there, and will have to wait and see what the response is.”
Better together
During Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s April meetings with Joe Biden in Washington, the two sides announced that Japan would be the first country to partner the US in its Floating Offshore Wind Shot project to drastically cut the cost of the relevant technology and power generation. In the event that regional objections to Japan’s EEZ plans do arise, having the White House onside will be a definite advantage.
The partnership announcement follows 14 major Japanese firms, including power companies and trading houses, linking up to invest through the Floating Offshore Wind Technology Research Association, with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry also preparing to provide funding for the venture.
Little of the technology for floating or fixed offshore is now developed by Japanese companies, with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Hitachi having pulled out of wind turbine manufacturing after years of slow growth in the domestic sector. This leaves projects in Japan reliant on turbines from global giants such as Vestas, Siemens and GE. The government is determined to create a robust supply chain in Japan to accompany the coming boom in offshore.
So near and yet so far
Among the additional technical challenges for floating wind farms located in deeper waters are higher costs for equipment, deployment and maintenance, as well as floating substations and the longer cables naturally needed to deliver the electricity back to shore.
There are also potential issues around national security when it comes to seafloor mapping and whether vessels operating under foreign flags will be permitted to carry that out.
All this is to say that floating wind farms are unlikely to be making a significant contribution to the government’s goal of having 10GW of offshore power projects even in the pipeline by 2030. As there are plenty of sites closer to shore yet to be tendered, Humber notes that “there is no big rush to have auctions yet” for floating projects.
“That will be very much a matter for the 2030s,” he suggests. “For this decade, it will be about reaching a consensus on projects in the EEZ, perhaps agreeing on common global standards, and working out issues such as insurance liabilities in the event of a clean-up after a typhoon destroys a turbine.”
Nevertheless, the prospect of the massive potential of floating offshore expanding as far as Japan’s EEZ should help drive the entire offshore sector onwards and increase the demand for capable people ready to work in this promising field.
By: Gavin Blair
We are currently looking for talent from the Energy Industry, as well as related industries such as Construction and Machinery. To find out more about hot roles in sustainability area and elsewhere please contact us at +81-3-5962-5888 or email us at info@slate.co.jp
Current openings:
• Technical Project Managers
• Technical Project Engineers
• Service Managers
• Project Developers
• Commercial Managers