Norway's renewable energy firm BW Ideol has signed a joint development agreement with Japanese oil refiner and distributor ENEOS Corporation to develop a site-specific commercial-scale floating offshore wind farm in Japan. BW Ideol is a global leader in floating offshore wind, with a fast-growing global pipeline of commercial-scale projects. The company is the only floating technology provider with two full-scale demonstration projects in operation, located in France and Japan.

“This collaboration confirms once again that our two-leg strategy of providing a proven technology and investing in the co-development of a project is extremely relevant in the context of a fast-accelerating new industry," says BW Ideol chief executive officer Paul De La Gueriviere. "We are pleased to keep on building a multi-gigawatt project portfolio in Japan, and add this project to our existing agreements for commercial-scale projects with other leading Japanese developers and utilities, confirming our unique position in this strategic market.”

Japan’s offshore wind projects are currently being developed under the Act on Promoting the Utilization of Sea Areas for the Development of Marine Renewable Energy Power Generation Facilities. The Japanese government has set an initial target for offshore wind power of 10GW by 2030 and 30GW to 45GW by 2040.

According to BW Ideol, there is evidence that the potential of floating offshore wind turbines is three times greater than that of fixed-bottom offshore wind, as waters around Japan tend to quickly become very deep a few kilometres from the shore. Thus, floating offshore wind has the potential to substantially contribute to achieving carbon neutrality and reducing the cost of energy transition.

The two companies intend to collaborate very closely and contribute to the early commercialization of cost-competitive floating offshore wind power in Japan.

The ENEOS Group has developed businesses in the energy and nonferrous metals segments. The group’s goal for 2040 is to become one of the most prominent and internationally-competitive energy and materials companies in Asia. It is developing mega solar power plants, wind power plants and biomass power plants across Japan.

In the offshore wind power business, ENEOS participated in a project off the coast of Taiwan in April 2019, and in September 2020, it participated in the development of projects off the coast of Happo Town and Noshiro City in Akita Prefecture.

In addition, in June 2021, ENEOS was selected as the operator of a floating offshore wind power generation project off the coast of Goto City in Nagasaki Prefecture.