Japan's Sumitomo and JGC eye major floating wind tie-up to head off 'bottlenecks'

Two major Japanese industrial groups – Sumitomo Corporation and JGC – are planning a wide-ranging collaboration in floating wind to address a looming bottleneck in the sector.

The two corporations this week signed an agreement that will “investigate the possibility of collaboration in the detailed design, manufacture and delivery of floating structural components”.

The Japanese partners said they will look at working together in several key areas “to establish a supply chain for floater components”.

They are: detailed design of floater components based on floating foundation design; development of steel and shipbuilding manufacturers as partners in the manufacture of floater components; order placement and manufacturing management; transportation of floater components to base ports.

Sumitomo and JGC cited figures predicting 269GW of global floating wind capacity in service by 2050, by when they said around 800 new platforms a year would need to be installed.

“While there is a need to develop floatier components for larger wind turbines, technological development is still in its infancy, and a supply chain has yet to be established,” the partners said.

“The supply of floater components is not keeping up with ever-increasing demand for offshore wind turbines, which is likely to cause a bottleneck in the expansion of the floating wind power generation market.”

Sumitomo is already an active player in the global offshore wind sector, including floating, via partnerships and stakes in supply chain players in Europe and development plans off Japan itself.

That presence was boosted in May when Sumitomo agreed to take a stake in IWS, the Norway-based offshore wind service vessels operator.

Due to the deep waters off its coasts, floating technology is set to play a key role in Japan’s push to award up to 45GW of offshore wind development rights by 2040.