BW Ideol and Japan’s ENEOS Corporation have signed a joint development agreement to develop a site-specific, commercial-scale floating offshore wind farm off Japan based on BW Ideol’s patented Damping Pool® technology.
ENEOS Corporation, Japan’s largest oil refiner and distributor, participated in an offshore wind project off the coast of Taiwan in April 2019, and in September 2020, the company participated in the development of projects off the coast of Happo Town and Noshiro City in Akita Prefecture.
In addition, in June 2021, ENEOS was selected as the operator of a floating offshore wind power generation project off the coast of Goto City in Nagasaki Prefecture.
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 kilometres from shore.
Floating offshore wind has the potential to substantially contribute to achieving carbon neutrality and reducing the cost of energy transition, BW Ideol said.
”This collaboration confirms once again that our two-leg strategy of providing a proven technology and investing in the co-development of a project is extremely relevant in the context of a fast-accelerating new industry,” Paul De La Guérivière , CEO of BW Ideol, said.
”We are pleased to keep on building a multi-GW project portfolio in Japan and add this project to our existing agreements for commercial-scale projects with other leading Japanese developers and utilities, confirming our unique position in this strategic market.”
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 .