Multifunctional Floating Offshore Wind Farm Support Vessel Design Gets ClassNK Nod

February 28, 2024, by Adnan Memija

K Line Wind Service, together with Japan Marine United Corporation and Nihon Shipyard, has been jointly granted Approval in Principle (AiP) from Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK) for the design concept of the multifunctional floating offshore wind farm support vessel (MFSV).

K Line Wind Service MFSV — *Source: K Line Wind Service*

The MFSV is designed to perform whole mooring works efficiently for floating offshore wind turbine installation, such as transportation of the mooring system, deploying the mooring system on the seabed, and anchor tensioning, said K Line Wind Service.

In addition, the MFSV can provide various vessel solutions in each phase of an offshore wind project, including survey, transportation, construction, and operation and maintenance. The multifunctional concept of MFSV is currently under the process of a patent application, according to the companies.

“The installation of floating offshore wind turbines always required mooring works by vessels, with the whole mooring system composed of an anchor, a mooring chain, and a fiber rope. “K” Line Wind Service has been pursuing the study on the most effective mooring method and the most suitable vessel design for such mooring work together with Japan Marine United and Nihon Shipyard. Finally, we completed the design concept of MFSV and obtained AiP from ClassNK,” K Line Wind Service said.

The development of the design concept is subsidized by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) as part of a Green Innovation Fund Project, a “Technology development project for basic manufacturing and installation cost reduction for floating wind turbines”.

K Line Wind Service was established in 2021 by the Japanese shipping company Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha and its domestic subsidiary Kawasaki Kinkai Kisen Kaisha to provide services within the offshore wind industry.

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When it comes to Japan, the country currently has six operational offshore wind farms, with two of them being large-scale, the 84 MW Noshiro Port and the 54.6 MW Akita Port projects.

The country’s government aims to deploy 10 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 and 30-45 GW by 2040, including floating wind, as part of its target to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

“The development of floating offshore wind is expected to take an important and key role in the achievement of the carbon neutrality by 2050, especially in Japan where shallow water area to develop the bottom-fixed offshore wind turbines is limited,” K Line Wind Service said.