Japanese utility Kepco to ‘drive innovation’ for Saitec’s floating offshore wind pilot
Japanese utility Kepco to ‘drive innovation’ for Saitec’s floating offshore wind pilot | Windpower Monthly
Japanese utility Kansai Electric Power (Kepco) will help Spanish engineering firm Saitec develop its DemoSATH floating offshore wind pilot off the north coast of Spain.
It will join the project as a co-investor and strategic partner, though Saitec will continue to own the project.
RWE is also helping Saitec with its 2MW DemoSATH.
The project will test Saitec’s ‘swinging around the hull’ floating offshore wind technology, which features a platform that can align itself around a single point of mooring, according to the direction of the wind and waves.
It features two cylindrical and horizontal hulls with conical edges braced by a concrete frame.
Saitec plans to install the project this summer.
The company stated that it expects Kepco to “provide invaluable insights that drive innovation and contribute to the project’s success.”
Chief commercial officer Immanuel Capano added: “Kepco’s vast experience and considerable resources amplify our capabilities, bringing a new level of expertise to our collective efforts.”
Saitec had commissioned a 30kW pilot project demonstrating its technology in 2020.
Kepco is helping to develop a floating offshore wind farm in Japan, and also owns stakes in operational offshore wind farms in UK waters.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.