France-based Ideol and Taisei Corporation in Japan have signed a memorandum of understanding for joint development and promotion of foundations for floating offshore wind that use Ideol’s patented Damping Pool technology
Ideol already has precommercial and commercial-scale projects under development and units in operation in France and Japan. For the time being it is also the only floating wind technology supplier with experience from two floating wind turbines on different continents in very different environmental conditions, certified by different class societies. Its track record includes the Floatgen demonstrator in France, Hibiki demonstrator in Japan and the upcoming Eolmed project in the Mediterranean.
Taisei is one of Japan’s largest general contractors with global expertise in marine construction, such as developing concrete barges. It was also involved in a recent project for an undersea tunnel installed using the immersed tube method in the Bosphorus.
The Damping Pool is effectively a floating barge suitable for installing offshore wind turbines. More recently, Ideol has developed a floating foundation for offshore substations using the same concept.
Ideol and Taisei intend to draw on both companies’ expertise and resources and co-operate to develop concrete floating offshore wind foundations in Japan and contribute to the acceleration of the domestic floating wind market.
“In Japan, the potential of floating wind is three times larger than that for bottom-fixed offshore windfarms,” said Ideol. “Floating offshore wind is therefore a promising market and using concrete will enable Ideol and Taisei to further reduce the cost of foundations.”
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