Subsea protection equipment provider Tekmar Energy will provide cable protection for the Akita and Noshiro offshore wind farm project in Japan.
The wind farms, set to be the first utility-scale offshore wind project in Japan, will be delivered by Akita Offshore Wind Corporation, a special purpose company set up by a consortium led by Marubeni.
Located at the ports of Akita and Noshiro in the coastal zone of Akita prefecture, the wind farms will feature 33 turbines and have an expected combined output of 139MW.
"Tekmar Energy will supply the project with 64 patented TekLink® Mechanical Latch CPS and cable hang-off arrangements to secure and protect the inter-array cables from the foundation hang-off point to the point at which they are buried in the seabed," Tekmar said of the new contract.
Jack Simpson, Director at Tekmar Energy said: “This is another significant award for Tekmar Energy which marks our first major CPS contract in Japan. We look forward to working on the Akita and Noshiro projects and to support the growing Japanese offshore wind sector.”
Wind turbine maker MHI Vestas Offshore Wind will be responsible for the wind turbine delivery for the project.
MHI Vestas will supply 33 V117-4.2 MW turbines in total, to be installed with fixed-bottom foundations at both sites. Installation is expected to start in 2022.
Of the 33 turbines to be supplied, 13 turbines will be supplied at the Akita site, while the Noshiro site will incorporate 20 turbines. In total, the projects will supply the equivalent of nearly 130,000 homes.
Japan is set to draft new rules and support framework in a drive that points to construct offshore wind projects at 30 areas by the end of the next decade.
Per GlobalData, the new policy plans for three or four projects each year with a total generation capacity of 1 gigawatt (GW), from the fiscal year beginning in April 2021 until 2030/2031. By the end of the decade, a total of 10 GW of potential generation sites are expected to be identified for further development.
Ankit Mathur, Practice Head at GlobalData, said earlier this week: “Unlike the last bill passed in 2018, identifying wind development zones, this draft bill sets clearer targets and objectives assisting the expansion of the sector. Japan has a strong presence of domestic sponsors, who are dynamic investors in the sector. Marubeni, for instance, is an active investor in European offshore wind. Besides, a huge sum of domestic capital is available to finance offshore wind projects. All these factors amalgamating with the implementation of the proposed bill can bolster the future outlook of the offshore wind sector.”
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