Today is Marine Day (Umi no Hi), a Japanese national holiday. This celebration honors the blessings of the ocean and the economic prosperity of maritime Japan.
We join the Japanese people in celebrating the ocean by sharing the video Invest Japan and the Government of Japan made featuring Aaron Smith, Principle Power’s Chief Commercial Officer. Aaron discusses Japan's market potential and innovation opportunities for the offshore wind power industry and renewable energy businesses.
We decided to open an office in Japan to serve as a hub back in 2020. We felt the conditions were right due to our strong network of collaborators and partners as well as the strong signals the Japanese government is putting towards the goal of becoming net zero by 2050.
Principle Power is a technology and services provider for the global offshore wind industry. We have developed a technology called the WindFloat® which is a three-column semi-submersible foundation that allows you to deploy wind turbines in deep waters. This is a game-changing technology that can unlock previously inaccessible sites and allow projects to be sited in the very best wind resources. Our view is that an island nation like Japan has a tremendous opportunity to look to the seas for achieving its very ambitious renewable energy goals.
The Green Innovation Fund is a program that the Japanese government has launched to target the different innovations in renewable energy technology. Offshore wind, in particular, is an area of focus where one of our partners was just awarded a Green Innovation Fund grant and will be using that to localize and industrialize the technology for the Japanese market.
Japan has pioneered many of the manufacturing methodologies that are commonplace worldwide and has an extremely high-tech approach to manufacturing. And so, some of the Japanese methodologies that have really transformed other sectors like automotive are directly applicable here.
There is a lot of relevant IP in Japan. For the offshore wind industry, we see it in areas like power cables and digital solutions.
What we see is that the wind turbine manufacturers have grown mostly in Europe, but they are making partnerships with major Japanese companies.
We see Japan as one of the most stable political and regulatory environments. We have a lot of trusted partnerships that we can leverage into creating a very good market position and the conditions for deploying the technology.
Green businesses look towards Japan because they see an environment where the government has made strong commitments to decarbonization. So, as such, we see that there is a lot of potential to go and develop renewable energy projects that are going to contribute to that goal.
