The Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, UK and the Japanese Floating Wind Technology Research Association (FLOWRA) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to work towards reducing risks and costs related to floating offshore wind.
The MoU, signed in Tokyo on 7 March, follows nine months of collaboration between ORE Catapult and FLOWRA. The initiative will cover areas such as personnel exchange, standardisation of component technologies and the creation of a “test and demonstration alliance” to develop technology on a large scale, ORE Catapult says. The MoU coincides with a wider recent co-operation between the UK and Japanese governments with regard to the development of these turbine types.
Jonathan Reynolds MP, UK secretary of state for business and trade, comments: “This partnership with Japan will turbocharge the development of this vital renewable energy. International partnerships like this will attract investment and deliver long-term, stable growth that supports skilled jobs and raises living standards across the UK, making our ‘Plan for Change’ a reality.”
The UK government’s Plan for Change aims to “make Britain a clean energy superpower” while kickstarting new economic opportunities for domestic businesses. The ORE Catapult-FLOWRA MoU will ultimately combine “UK R&D capability” and “Japanese industrial manufacturing capacity” for a surge in floating offshore wind technology development, ORE Catapult adds.
As well as providing economic benefits for each country, a robust offshore floating wind capability will bolster energy security for the UK and Japan, while assisting both to pursue their decarbonisation goals, adds Dr Cristina Garcia-Duffy, director of research and technical capabilities at ORE Catapult. For example, the Japanese government has set ambitious targets of 10GW of offshore capacity by 2030, increasing to 45GW by 2040. Floating wind turbines are expected to play a significant role here, due to Japan’s limited availability of shallow-water sites for fixed-bottom turbines.
Additionally, the UK government’s British Energy Security Strategy, rolled out in 2022 in response to gas supply disruption in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, aims to generate 60GW of electricity from offshore wind sources by 2030, an estimated 5GW of which would be supplied by floating offshore wind turbines.
