A consortium including Japan Marine United (JMU) has officially started "The Southern Akita Floating Offshore Demonstration Project Aimed at Overseas Expansion via Cost Reductions."
The consortium plans to install two wind turbine generators with a capacity of over 15MW each, approximately 25km off the coast of southern Akita Prefecture, Japan, at a water depth of approximately 400 meters.
The project will run until March 2031, with the windfarm entering operation around the autumn of 2029.
JMU has already developed a semi-submersible floating substructure design, and in the current project the company will address outstanding technical issues to enable mass production. JMU says its floating substructure design is simple and can be easily fabricated by yards that deal with steel structures such as ship and bridges. Through building alliance with those yards, JMU will establish optimal construction method by gathering hull blocks, fabricated concurrently in separate yards, to one place and joining them at sea.
JMU will also develop optimized transportation and construction methods that minimize downtime due to weather.
JMU has previously proved cost advantages of taut/semi-taut hybrid mooring systems consisting of fiber ropes and steel chain over a chain catenary mooring system. It will further optimize this for installation in deepwater areas. The company will also develop digital twin technology to enable structural monitoring and power production.
Consortium members:
Marubeni Offshore Wind Development Corporation (managing company)
Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc.
Akita Floating Offshore Wind LLC
Japan Marine United Corporation
TOA CORPORATION
TOKYO SEIKO ROPE MFG. CO., LTD.
Kanden Plant Corporation
JFE Engineering Corporation
NAKANIHON AIR Co., Ltd.