Japan’s Floating Offshore Wind Technology Research Association (FLOWRA) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (ORE Catapult) in the UK to consider collaboration on technology development in the floating offshore wind sector.
The MoU aims to lay the groundwork for concrete activities to reduce costs and risks in the floating offshore wind sector through cooperation between industry, academia, and government in the UK and Japan.
By the end of this year, FLOWRA and ORE Catapult will explore the potential for forming a collaborative framework aimed at addressing various challenges that could support industry growth and lower risks and costs in the floating offshore wind sector.
This could include initiatives like personnel exchanges and joint technology development efforts.
The Japanese government aims to deploy 10 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 and up to 45 GW by 2040 as part of its target to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
Floating offshore wind in particular has a large potential for introduction in Japan, which has the world’s sixth largest combined territorial waters and exclusive economic zones (EEZ), said FLOWRA.
At the end of last year, the JERA-led consortium and BP, along with its consortium partners, were granted exclusive rights to develop two offshore wind farms in Japan’s territorial waters.