Dutch to Study Floating Wind Market in Japan

The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Japan, together with the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), has commissioned the Dutch company BLIX Consultancy to perform a floating wind market study in Japan, with an aim to strengthen offshore wind collaborations between the two countries and to obtain a better understanding of the floating wind market in Japan.

BLIX will perform the market study over the course of the coming months, after which a seminar will be organised to present the results to companies and organisations based in the Netherlands, the company said in a press release on 4 February.

Since there is a strong demand for floating offshore wind solutions to tap into Japan’s wind resource far offshore and in deep water, the strong offshore wind sector in the Netherlands could deliver such floating wind solutions in close cooperation with Japanese supply chain parties, according to BLIX.

“Floating offshore wind will be a very important part of the Renewable Energy base in Japan and there are quite a few solutions that likely fit well in the strategy of the Japanese government, but it is of utmost importance that there is a good general understanding of how the Japanese market functions and what the dos and don’ts are while entering this market”, said Willemijn van der Werf, BLIX Consultancy’s business developer for Asia.

BLIX Consultancy opened a branch office in Taipei, Taiwan, in 2020 to support the offshore wind business in the Asia Pacific region, with upcoming assignments in South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan at the time.

According to BLIX’s project manager for this study in Japan, Naohiro Kuji, the company expanded its international endeavours with the opening of an office in Tokyo in 2021.

The Japanese government aims to deploy 10 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 and 30-45 GW by 2040, including floating wind, as part of its target to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

In December 2021, Japan launched an auction to select the developer of up to 356 MW of offshore wind capacity in the Happo-Noshiro zone off Akita prefecture, the country’s third offshore wind auction since the new Renewable Sea Area Utilization Law came into power in April 2019.

The first auction was launched in June for the development of a floating offshore wind farm off Goto City, Nagasaki Prefecture, with a consortium of six companies led by Toda Corporation later selected to build the floating wind project.

In November 2020, the government of Japan launched its second auction and first-ever organised for bottom-fixed offshore wind projects within the country’s General Common Sea Area. Consortia in which Mitsubishi Corporation is the main stakeholder were selected to develop all of the projects offered in this auction.

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