SAPPORO, Japan (Reuters) – Britain wants to take part in the development of wind energy offshore Japan through options ranging from the participation of its energy companies to supply of funding and insurance, Energy Security Secretary Grant Shapps told Reuters.
The Group of Seven wealthy nations agreed to speed up the development of renewable energy after their two-day meeting in Sapporo in northern Japan, pledging to jointly increase wind capacity beyond offshore with 150 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 and solar capacity to more than 1. terawatt.
The UK is one of the largest offshore wind markets in the world, with over 10 GW of installed capacity. It plans to boost its capacity to 50 GW by the end of the decade, with BP and Shell actively expanding in the area.
“I think the British input (in Japan) is probably both the energy companies – the physical side of it – but also the finance side of it, the finance mechanism, the insurance, the -technical know-how consulting,” Shapps said.
He said before the G7 summit on energy and climate in Sapporo, Shapps spent a few days discussing possible cooperation with the Japanese government and industry.
Japan has launched a second major round of public auctions to select operators for four new areas capable of generating 1.8 GW of offshore wind power. It wants to install up to 10 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 and up to 45 GW by 2040.
Shapps did not specifically mention the offshore wind power auctions but said there were “very broad areas of cooperation between the UK and Japan” in offshore wind development.
He also noted that the targets set by the G7 on solar and offshore wind generation were “general” for the group.
“It’s not broken down into individual countries and I suspect some countries will gain more on the overall comparative input partly because of geography… or windier locations,” Shapps said.
(Reporting by Katya Golubkova; Editing by Tom Hogue)
By Katya Golubkova
