On June 11, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and NEDO announced the selection of two research themes relating to the "Floating Offshore Wind Power Demonstration Project," an R&D item of NEDO's "Low-Cost Offshore Wind Power" project. This project aims to increase offshore wind power primarily through the introduction of floating wind power generation by reducing its cost, as part of the Green Innovation Fund.
One research theme selected for the Green Innovation Fund is "Low-Cost Offshore Wind Power," with NEDO committing approximately 85 billion yen to the project. Scheduled from FY2024 to FY2030, Phase 2 of the initiative, titled "Floating Offshore Wind Demonstration Project," aims to advance the development of floating offshore wind power generation facilities. To reduce costs for the future mass production of floating offshore wind power generation facilities, a floating demonstration project will be conducted using a large wind turbine with a capacity of 10 MW or more in real sea conditions in Phase 2 by incorporating the technological advancements obtained in Phase 1. Phase 2 will also establish cost and production time targets, focusing on the global market to strengthen Japan's industrial competitiveness.
Another selected theme is the "Southern Akita Floating Offshore Wind Demonstration Project" The project is planned to be conducted with two wind turbines that have an output of over 15 MW. The floating structure will be semi-submersible, with the lower half of the structure submerged below the sea surface. This structure has advantages such as being less susceptible to waves. Marubeni Offshore Wind Development Corporation will be the managing company for this project, which will be undertaken by a total of nine companies, including Tohoku Electric Power Co. and Akita Prefecture Southern Coast Floating Offshore Wind Power Generation Company.
"Floating Offshore Wind-power Demonstration Project off the Coast of Aichi Prefecture" is one more theme associated with the project. The objective is to perform the same action plan as the previous theme, but with a single wind turbine with an output of over 15 MW, which will also use a semi-submersible floating structure. C-Tech will serve as the managing company for this project, and a total of five companies, including Hitachi Zosen and Kajima Corporation, will work on it.
The Japanese government declared in October 2020 that it aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. As a result, a goal to reduce overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to zero was set. However, this target is a significant step ahead of previous government policy, and its realization will require significant acceleration of current efforts, such as the structural transformation of the energy and industrial sectors and innovation through bold investment. To this end, METI has created a fund totaling 2 trillion yen at NEDO and launched the "Green Innovation Fund Project." Within the framework of the Project, concrete and ambitious goals will be shared between the public and private sectors, and companies and other organizations that address these goals as a management issue will be provided with continuous support in terms of R&D and demonstration to social implementation for 10 years.
The Fund project targets support for priority sectors for which action plans have been formulated under the Green Growth Strategy. In addition, 300 billion yen was added to the second supplementary budget of FY2022, and 456.4 billion yen was added to the initial budget of FY2023.
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