MOL Becomes Strategic Partner and Shareholder in Floating Wind Specialist Odfjell Oceanwind - gCaptain
MOL Becomes Strategic Partner and Shareholder in Floating Wind Specialist Odfjell Oceanwind
Tokyo-based shipping company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) has recently acquired a stake in Odfjell Oceanwind, solidifying its position as a strategic partner to the floating offshore wind specialist.
The move follows a private placement and provides Odfjell Oceanwind with substantial capital to further enhance its floating offshore wind technologies.
The partnership with MOL, one of the world’s largest shipping companies, will enable Odfjell Oceanwind to accelerate its plans of supporting and collaborating with offshore wind developers in realizing floating offshore wind projects. Leveraging their proprietary DNV-approved Deepsea™ technology, Odfjell Oceanwind aims to deploy large 15MW+ conventional offshore wind turbines to various locations, including challenging offshore areas too deep for fixed-bottom turbines.
Odfjell Oceanwind has already established partnerships with Source Galileo, Kansai Electric Power, and Ingka, for the Utsira Nord seabed lease competition in Norway.
Odfjell Oceanwind’s Deepsea Star™ semisubmersible foundation design has already been selected for projects such as GoliatVIND and UtsiraVIND, and is being considered for several other projects, including INTOG and Scotwind, with a total of 50 GW of projects worldwide expected to be completed by 2035.
“MOL is a quality investor that perfectly complements our existing shareholders. With their extensive fleet of over 800 ships and growing service portfolio in the floating offshore wind sector, MOL brings valuable resources and experience to support Odfjell Oceanwind’s rapid international growth,” said Per Lund, CEO of Odfjell Oceanwind.
Masayuki Sugiyama, Executive Officer responsible for the Wind Power Projects Unit at MOL, expressed his enthusiasm over the partnership.
“We are delighted to join Odfjell Oceanwind and recognize the promising potential of their technology, backed by the rich history and background of Odfjell Drilling and Odfjell Technology. This strategic partnership aligns perfectly with both companies’ cultures, and as shareholders, we are fully committed to contributing to the acceleration of Odfjell Oceanwind’s ambition to become a global leader in floating offshore wind technologies,” he said.
Odfjell Technology, combined with the Odfjell family’s direct investment, will remain the largest shareholder in Odfjell Oceanwind.
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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.