The following year, NEDO selected NYK as part of a four-company consortium, including Sumitomo Electric Industries, Furukawa Electric, and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), to participate in a public tender focused on developing construction methods for cable protection systems and designing new cable-laying vessels for the project.
As a result, NYK has been working alongside Sumitomo Electric to design a self-propelled cable-laying vessel. This design has recently earned Approval in Principle (AiP) from ClassNK, a major classification society. With this approval, the company will move forward with the detailed design phase to secure basic design approval.
NYK sees the development of a power transmission network as essential for increasing electricity generation, particularly since locations like Hokkaido, ideal for wind power generation, are far from major demand centers. To address this, the construction of a long-distance subsea DC transmission network using cable-laying vessels is viewed as a promising solution.
Together with Sumitomo Electric, NYK is working on developing the core technology for these vessels, which will play a key role in building Japan's domestic subsea DC transmission network. NYK has emphasized its commitment to contributing to a decarbonized society by optimizing the vessel's design, following the recent delivery of an LNG carrier from Samsung Heavy Industries.