JFE Engineering Corporation is to invest ¥40bn (€300m) to build Japan’s “first” monopile foundation factory for offshore wind.
The facility is scheduled to be constructed on the premises of JFE Steel West Japan Works in the Fukuyama District of Kasaoka City in Okayama Prefecture.
Large single heavy plate will be manufactured by JFE Steel and then transported to the new factory to manufacture monopile and transition piece raw pipes.
Completed monopiles will be shipped directly to the construction site of the offshore wind farms, JFE said.
Transition piece raw pipes will also be transported by sea to JFE Engineering Tsu Seisakusho, and, after installing secondary materials and interior parts, they will be transported by sea from Tsu Seisakusho.
In the future, JFE plans to add a jacket-type foundation facility and establish a full lineup system for offshore wind power foundation manufacturing.
The launch of a domestic manufacturing business for monopiles will greatly contribute to the achievement of the government’s renewables goal, JFE said.
The Japanese government has set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to virtually zero by 2050, and offshore wind power generation is expected to be the key to making renewable energy the main power source.
The ‘Offshore Wind Industry Vision (1st)’ announced in December last year stated the goal of forming projects of 30GW to 45GW and increasing the domestic procurement ratio to 60% by 2040.