The development of offshore wind farms in Japan brings some unique challenges, such as earthquakes, typhoons and unusual geological formation. In this new collaboration, GDG, which was founded in Dublin, Ireland, will combine its unique expertise in offshore engineering and geoscience with the local Japanese knowledge of Geo Marine Service Co., Ltd and Nikken Sekkei Ltd, to offer unparalleled survey specification, wind turbine foundation design and certification process support to the Japanese market.
Paul Doherty, founder of GDG and executive vice president of engineering at Venterra Group, speaking at the signing of a memorandum of understanding between GDG and its Japanese partners, said: "The GDG team are experts at finding innovative engineering solutions to support some of the most challenging offshore wind projects around the world and we look forward to building on our current base of foundation design projects in Japan. We're delighted to partner with Japanese organisations who hold invaluable local knowledge of the marine regulatory regime, grid and development procedures.
"Together, we are committed to supporting projects that contribute to the global sustainability agenda."
GDG, which has supported 35,000MW of offshore wind globally, enough energy to power approximately 25 million homes, is a leader in geotechnical engineering design and has already expanded to the UK, EU and the US. It will now bring its unique capabilities to its latest target, Japan.
The Basic Energy Plan, issued by the Japanese government, has set a target of 45,000MW of offshore wind by 2040 and will go some way to helping Japan achieve its decarbonisation targets, as well as the growing need to reduce energy costs for consumers. However, the Japanese service supply chain required to make this happen has not been sufficiently established.
"Our aim is to offer solutions for these challenges through combining our extensive experience in onshore wind with GDG and Nikken Sekkei Ltd who can introduce the latest international technologies and know-how," said Ken Yoshizumi, representative director, Geo Marine Service Co., Ltd. "We are fully committed to supporting the needs of the Japanese market through competitive foundation design work, which is of major importance in the development of offshore wind farms."
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