Mitsui OSK Lines has teamed up with the renewables subsidiary of French energy giant EDF to cooperate in the fields of offshore wind and to encourage developments in green hydrogen.
The Japanese shipowner said EDF Renewables has been operating in the offshore wind sector for nearly a decade and is active in more than 20 countries.
“Both partners wish to collaborate and bring together their respective and complementary expertise and experience in offshore wind energy as well as in green hydrogen solutions,” MOL said in a statement.
Frederic Belloy, executive vice president of international operations for EDF Renewables, said the company was “very keen” in the future innovation on maritime transport in offshore wind and green hydrogen development and was committed to contributing to Japan’s energy transition.
Masayuki Sugiyama, executive officer, wind power project & carbon power solution, said the tie-up with EDF Renewables would “accelerate the development of offshore wind farm and green hydrogen projects all over the world”.
MOL has what it describes as two pillars to its offshore wind power business. One is supply chain services for offshore wind farms and the other is the development of offshore wind farms.
The shipowner said it aims to accumulate experience and expertise in fixed-bottom offshore wind power generation and supply chain business and become a leading company with its strengths in floating offshore wind power generation.
EDF Renewables Japan was established in June 2022 with a local team based in Tokyo to support Japan’s goals in terms of renewable energies.
“Some 80% of the Japanese offshore wind potential requires floating wind projects, an emerging market with only a few farms that are already in operation in the world, although it is a promising technology to address seabed deepness,” the company said.
EDF Renewables said it will also study the opportunities given by the Japanese government to develop green hydrogen projects, in line with its plans to develop 3 GW of electrolytic hydrogen projects worldwide by 2030.
Earlier this week, MOL announced that it had become a shareholder in Norwegian floating offshore wind specialist Odfjell Oceanwind, which has developed its deepsea technologies for large wind turbines of 15MW and above.
Last month, MOL took an unspecified stake in Dutch start-up TouchWind, which is developing a new floating turbine system with a single-piece rotor.
The tilting, angled blade is expected to reduce the wind interference between turbines that tends to occur in large wind farms.
In June, the group said it had formed a joint venture to move further into offshore wind vessel operations.
MOL set up a company on a 50/50 basis with domestic group Toyo Construction Co following a collaboration agreement in February focusing on developing a wind farm ship.
MOL also aims to expand in the offshore wind farm business through its shareholding in US-based Eneti, which is merging with BW Group-backed shipowner Cadeler in Denmark.
