Japanese conglomerate Sumitomo Corporation and compatriot engineering firm JGC Japan Corporation are investigating a potential partnership focused on building a supply chain for floating offshore wind.
The companies will consider whether they can collaborate on designing, manufacturing and transporting structural components for floating offshore wind. They would also aim to develop steel and shipbuilding companies as partners for this.
Sumitomo and JGC Japan see a coming explosion of floating offshore wind, and cited a DNV forecast that global capacity could grow from about 200MW in 2022 to 269GW in 2050.
However, the partners see the lack of supply of components for floating wind platforms as a potential bottleneck in the sector’s expansion.
Sumitomo has invested in offshore wind farms globally – but all of these projects are expected to use fixed-bottom foundations, according to “uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç Intelligence, the research and data division of “uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç.
The company is working with floating vertical-axis turbine designer SeaTwirl in Japan, though, and was shortlisted in France’s first floating offshore wind tender, but was ultimately unsuccessful.
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