Yesterday, August 23, Japan's Kansai Electric Power (Kansai EPCO) and Germany's RWE Renewables (RWE) signed an agreement to prepare a feasibility study for the establishment of floating wind farms off the coast of Japan. Sven Utermöhlen, RWE's Chief Operating Officer for Wind Projects, pointed to “the great potential for floating wind farms around the world – especially in countries with deep coastal waters such as Japan.” Kansai EPCO Executive Vice President Nozomi Mori emphasized that the project will help the company move towards the goal of completely phasing out hydrocarbon power generation by 2050.
Unlike stationary wind farms, floating ones can be deployed even in deep sea areas. And although the creation of such facilities is a rather difficult task, and the electricity generated by them – taking into account installation and transmission – is more expensive compared to stationary offshore wind turbines, recently such projects have been heard more and more often. According to CNBC, in Japan alone, two more floating wind farm projects have been announced since early summer. BW Ideol and Eneos announced this in July, and in June the Japanese government announced that a consortium of Toda Corporation, Osaka Gas, Kansai Electric Power, ENEOS Corporation, INPEX Corporation and Chubu Electric Power had won the tender for the construction of a floating wind farm for 16 , 8 MW off the coast of Nagasaki Prefecture.
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