How Japan plans to use floating offshore wind to solve its clean energy problem

Floating marine energy could change the rules of the game in Japan and around the world.

Japan urgently needs this technology to meet its mid-century net-zero emissions goals. After the country moved away from nuclear power – previously its main source of electricity – in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster, the country invested heavily in solar energy. Japan currently generates more than 11% of its energy from solar energy, a higher percentage than China or the United States. However, there is not enough space in the densely populated country to develop utility-scale or rooftop solar plants. Onshore wind is also mostly lost due to the lack of flat land available.

Other solutions promoted under Japan’s core green transition policy, commonly known as GX and its response to the US Inflation Control Act, include hydrogen, co-firing coal-fired power plants with ammonia, or carbon capture and sequestration – all of which are expected to have limited influence in helping Tokyo achieve its goals.

Enter the sea wind. As an archipelagic country, Japan has the seventh largest coastline in the world and the sixth largest maritime area. However, it also faces many of the same topographical challenges as the US West Coast, namely a lack of shallow seabed for the traditional fixed-bottom offshore wind turbines that have helped countries such as the UK, Denmark and Norway become world leaders in offshore energy wind . To fully exploit Japan’s wind energy resources, floating offshore wind power is increasingly considered necessary.

For now, floating offshore wind accounts for just 6% of Asia’s planned offshore wind energy over the next decade, but analysis by Wood Mackenzie suggests the sector could be worth $58 billion across the region once installation costs come down. Japan currently has about 5 GW of operating wind farms, having been late in introducing a policy framework to support the development of offshore wind, and aims to reach 45 GW by 2040.

The Mitsubishi Research Institute (MRI) estimates that Japan has a maximum of 116 GW of exploitable fixed-bottom offshore wind potential, but an astonishing 2,940 GW of floating potential – more than enough to replace the country’s entire coal fleet. Japan also wants to take the world lead in floating wind power and overtake the United States and China, which are slowly developing the technology. “Japan has huge market potential, but to tap into it, floating offshore wind will be needed,” said Chihiro Terasawa, research director at MRI.

As a result, over the past few years there has been a flurry of partnerships, collaborations, and investments by U.S. and European companies in floating offshore wind in Japan. Mitsui OSK has established a joint-venture company with the British company Flotation Energy, the aim of which is to develop the local supply chain.

In 2022, BP and Marubeni announced a partnership to develop offshore wind energy. The following year, GE announced a partnership with Toshiba to produce both fixed-bottom and floating offshore wind equipment. Meanwhile, UK-based Octopus Energy has formed a joint venture with Tokyo Gas to provide clean energy to customers and hopes to offer customers energy generated by floating offshore wind turbines in the future.

German global wind energy leader RWE has signed an agreement with Kansai Electric Power Co to build a large-scale floating offshore wind project off the coast of Japan.

“The prospects for Japanese offshore wind energy are phenomenal,” said Jens Bøgsted Orfelt, president of the Asia-Pacific region at RWE Offshore Wind. “We see great potential for offshore wind energy to play a major factor in Japan’s energy transformation.”