Japanese Trio Unveil New Floating Concept

Japanese trio Modec, Toyo Construction and Furukawa Electric are to work together to develop a new floating offshore wind concept.

The companies have been selected by Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization to carry out the development, which will run for two years until March 2022.

They said their research aims to reduce the overall cost of floating wind by adopting a tension leg platform (TLP) instead of the catenary mooring which has being demonstrated in Japan and overseas.

The concept is expected to be able to accommodate turbines of 10MW-plus, the partners said.

They added that the TLP will also have less impact on fisheries and ship operations than catenary mooring.

Modec will work on the mooring system, Toyo Construction the mooring foundation design and offshore construction and Furukawa Electric on the subsea power transmission system.