Japanese FPSO specialist Modec has signed a cooperation framework agreement with China’s Dalian Shipbuilding Offshore Company (DSOC) to jointly develop offshore floating wind projects.
The restructured Chinese shipyard formerly known as DSIC Offshore, which recently emerged from bankruptcy proceedings, revealed the deal this week at the name change ceremony.
The partnership will leverage Modec’s engineering and procurement capabilities in floating wind projects and utilise DSOC’s expertise in constructing offshore facilities.
Modec is involved in a consortium with power generation major JERA, Toyo Construction, and Farukawa Electric Industry, to develop tension leg platform (TPL) floating offshore wind turbines.
The consortium was selected to conduct the project by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) under its Green Innovation Fund program.
Japan has set a goal of increasing offshore wind power generation capacity, including floating offshore wind, to 30–45 GW by 2040. Due to the country’s limited shallow-water sites where the bottom-fixed offshore wind turbines can be installed, there is a strong domestic demand for practical floating offshore wind turbines that can be installed in deep water further from shore.
The two-year project, approved in January last year, aims to establish component technologies for TLP floating and mooring systems and subsea power transmission systems with the aim of commercialising floating wind farms in the early 2030s. Modec said the TLP systems are expected to reduce the cost of power generation because the high stability of tension mooring to a seafloor foundation enables installation of large 15 MW-class wind turbines.
