Japan has agreed to collaborate with the United States to reduce the cost of floating offshore wind projects, as announced by the White House during Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s visit to Washington to meet with President Joe Biden.
Under the agreement, Japan and the U.S. will work together to accelerate developments in engineering, manufacturing, and other areas related to floating wind farms. Tokyo will contribute 120 billion yen ($784 million) to develop floating wind technology through its Green Innovation Fund.
The United States has set a goal of installing 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind capacity by 2035, enough to power more than 5 million homes, to help displace fossil fuels for power generation and combat climate change. The U.S. plan also aims to reduce the cost of floating offshore wind installations operating in deep waters by more than 70% to $45 per megawatt-hour over the next decade. Floating wind power installations are typically larger and more expensive than bottom-fixed structures.
Floating offshore wind is relatively new in Japan, where state auctions for offshore wind farms have mainly involved bottom-fixed installations. Last month, Japanese energy companies, including Mitsubishi Corp’s wind power unit, Tokyo Gas, and JERA, formed a consortium to jointly develop floating offshore wind technology to help Japan achieve its renewable energy goals.
