Page 7 - AsiaElec Week 34 2021

AsiaElec RENEWABLES AsiaElec

Kansai Electric brings in RWE to

develop floating wind in Japan

JAPAN JAPAN’S Kansai Electric Power and Germa- wind project led by a consortium of six compa-
ny’s RWE Renewables have announced plans to nies, headed by Toda Corporation, that includes
work to develop offshore wind capacity off the Kansai Electric.
Japanese coast, building on their work together The company aims to become carbon neu-
in the UK. tral by 2050 and is currently developing 2 GW
Kansai Electric Power is bringing in RWE as of renewable resources in a bid to reach 6 GW of
Japan aims to become carbon neutral by 2050, green capacity worldwide by the 2030s.
with offshore wind playing a major role in meet- At home, Kansai Electric has offshore wind
ing the goal. projects at the development stage in Akita,
“We see great potential for floating wind Yamagata and Nagasaki prefectures.
farms worldwide, but especially in countries In Europe, the company has been involved in
with deeper coastal waters like Japan. Floating two offshore wind projects, including one in col-
wind could help to raise untapped potential off laboration with RWE at Triton Knoll (857 MW)
the Japanese coast,” said Sven Utermöhlen, COO in the UK.
Wind Offshore Global of RWE Renewables. Japan intends to install between 30 GW and
RWE said it is keen to use its global expertise 45 GW of offshore wind capacity, both floating
to test different types of floating foundations in and fixed, by 2040 as the country aims to reach
Japan’s deep coastal waters. It has already carried carbon neutrality by 2050.
out feasibility studies for fixed offshore wind tur- The Japanese government plans to award 10
bines in Akita and Niigata prefectures. GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 with 1
For Kansai Electric, the deal with RWE GW per year of tenders.
means bringing in the deepwater floating wind Across Asia, floating offshore could be the
expertise that it lacks. next frontier in wind power development, said
“We believe that development of floating off- Wood Mackenzie, with capex costs set to fall by
shore wind farms will be the key to achiev[ing] 40% to average $3mn per MW by 2025-2030.
this. RWE is our important partner in the UK Floating offshore wind accounts for just 6%
offshore wind business. We believe that our capacity of the 26 GW of new offshore capacity
existing relationship can be extended for safe anticipated in the current decade in Asia-Pacific,
and stable offshore wind operation in Japan, excluding China.
by combining Kansai EPCO’s experience and The Japanese government estimates that
expertise in domestic electricity business and current capex costs of floating offshore can be
RWE’s global equivalent in offshore wind,” as high as $10mn per MW but could be commer-
said Nozomu Mori, executive vice-president of cially feasible if brought down to $4mn per MW,
Kansai Electric. compared with grounded offshore capex costs
Offshore floating wind is still at an early stage of $2-3mn per MW and an average Asia-Pacific
of development in Japan. Only in June 2021 onshore wind capex cost of $1.5mn per MW by
did the government award the first tender for a 2030.™
floating project. This was for a 16.8-MW floating

Week 34 25•August•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P7