Japanese shipping company NYK and Akita Eisen KK, the only towing company in Akita prefecture, have agreed to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a crew transfer vessel (CTV) business related to offshore wind mainly in the waters off Akita prefecture.
In accordance with the Act of Promoting Utilization of Sea Areas in Development of Power Generation Facilities Using Maritime Renewable Energy Resources, the sea areas off Noshiro, Mitane, and Oga in Akita prefecture, in addition to the sea area off Yurihonjo in Akita prefecture have been selected as offshore wind promotion areas, and public solicitation for offshore wind power business operators is underway .
In the future, the NYK Group will consider the commercialization of CTV ownership and ship management by utilizing the knowledge of CTVs gained through the group’s collaboration with the Northern Offshore Group in Sweden, in addition to the knowledge and network of Akita Eisen, the company said.
NYK is also exploring options for owning and operating Japanese-flagged wind farm installation vessels together with Van Oord, as well as providing offshore geotechnical services in Japan jointly with Fugro .
Japan’s installed offshore wind capacity currently stands at around 70 MW but is expected to reach 30-45 GW of offshore wind capacity installed by 2040.