Principle Power and Tokyo Gas have received Approval in Principle (AiP) from ClassNK for a 15 MW-class floating offshore wind system based on WindFloat TC technology. This is the second AiP issued by the Japanese classification society for the WindFloat technology.
Principle Power has been active in Japan since 2016, when it received its first AiP from ClassNK for a 5 MW project. Since then, the company has supported the deployment and operation of 105 MW of offshore wind projects in Europe using turbines of up to 10 MW and completed several preliminary and front-end engineering design studies for projects using 15–20 MW turbines.
More recently, Principle Power supported Tokyo Gas in fabricating a full-scale WindFloat mock-up for a 15 MW-class turbine under Japan’s Green Innovation Fund programme.
The latest AiP covers a floating offshore wind system using WindFloat TC foundations. ClassNK’s technical assessment considered site-specific wind, wave and current conditions and reviewed the performance of the floating foundation and station-keeping system under selected design load cases relevant to Japan, including tsunami conditions.
