Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 28 February 2022 – Kajima Corporation and Van Oord have been selected as the preferred Balance of Plant contractors for three offshore wind projects in Japan. Kajima Corporation, founded in 1840 is one of the largest and leading construction companies in Japan. Kajima Corporation has an extensive track record in marine construction work, as well as over 30 years of experience in building onshore wind farms.
Van Oord, a maritime company primarily focused on dredging and reclamation works have lately been more in the news for different reasons. The company, famous for the magnanimous land reclamation works in the Middle East, especially in the emirate of Dubai, the United Arab Emirates is now frequently in the news associated with wind farms. Yes, the company’s new vertical other than dredging is Wind Turbine installation in the deep seas and the oceans all across the globe along with other Belgian dredging majors who have also morphed part of their operations to create a wind turbine installation wing out of nowhere. Millions have been spent on fleet infrastructure and the companies are competing to win tenders to fix turbines in the open oceans.
Van Oord has won one such tender in the Far East Asian region with an unlikely partner – the Kajima Corporation. For Van Oord, it is the first contract of this size in Japan.
In December 2021 the Government of Japan selected three consortiums, all led by Mitsubishi Corporation Energy Solutions, as the operators for three offshore wind power projects in Akita, northern Japan, and Chiba, near Tokyo. These are the wind farm near Choshi in Chiba (391 MW), the wind project (479 MW) off the coast of Noshiro, Mitane and Oga in Akita and the project off the coast of Yurihonjo in Akita (819 MW). Yurihonjo will be the largest wind farm in Japan. Execution of this portfolio of projects will take place over several years and is expected to start in the second half of this decade. Kajima and Van Oord have been supporting the three consortiums in developing the projects and will continue doing so. By joining forces with Kajima, Van Oord aims to contribute to the successful development of offshore wind as a sustainable energy source for Japanese society. These three Balance of Plant projects (providing all supporting components and auxiliary systems other than the wind turbines) will further strengthen Van Oord’s long term presence in the growing offshore wind market in Asia.
