A Newcastle-based cleantech scale-up is expanding its Asia-Pacific presence thanks to support from the UK Government-backed Innovate UK.
Kinewell Energy has translated its entire suite of optimisation software products for the offshore wind industry into Japanese and Korean, courtesy of the Innovate UK funding.
Since its launch in 2015, Kinewell’s three software solutions (KLOC, KWOTA and KDOTS) have been utilised by some of the world’s largest renewable energy producers.
Shaving months and millions of pounds from the process of developing offshore wind farms, the software is now a tool in the armoury of energy giants the world-over supporting the global transition to a Net Zero future.
The success has seen Kinewell make great strides overseas in recent years, particularly in the Asia-Pacific market, where the company is celebrating a year since officially launching its Kinewell Wake-Optimisation Turbine Arrangement (KWOTA) solution at the Global Offshore Wind Summit in Fukuoka, Japan.
Japan has bold ambitions to produce renewable energy on a massive scale domestically, by increasing offshore wind capacity to over 5.7 GW by 2030, and Kinewell’s pioneering software solutions are helping it deliver this project pipeline.
So too does South Korea, with a prime example being the 600 MW Wando-Guemil offshore wind project in the Yellow Sea. Kinewell worked on the project in the early stages of its development to determine the most appropriate offshore substation location and optimise the project’s inter-array cable layout.
Dr Andrew Jenkins, founder and CEO of Kinewell Energy, said: “We’ve already worked with six companies in Japan and three in South Korea to deploy our SaaS optimisation tools and provide consultancy services.
“One of our Japanese clients has also recently renewed its subscription to continue using our KLOC inter-array cable layout optimisation solution, and the demand for our services in the market is continuing to grow.
“This is why we decided to translate our software solutions into Japanese and Korean, to make it easier for clients to use our tools through their native language, and we’re thankful to Innovate UK for helping make it possible to do so.
“We see strong demand and growth across the whole of the Asia-Pacific region for our offshore wind design optimisation tools and the funding and support from Innovate UK will really help us to grasp the lucrative opportunities this increased demand will present.”
Another company utilising Kinewell Energy’s software in the APAC region is Xodus, a consultancy advising on the development of four floating offshore wind farms in the region.
Peter Syrda, consultant subsea renewables engineer and project manager, said: “Xodus has recently used the KLOC platform to develop array layouts for four floating offshore wind farms across Japan and South Korea.
“The platform allows us to perform complex optimisation calculations quickly, developing layouts which optimise the field across its lifetime.”
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), has supported Kinewell Energy through its Net Zero Living: User-focused design competition. The project focused on making Kinewell’s SaaS solutions as easy to use as possible through user-focused design principles, collaborating with the Design Council, and has helped to fund the language translation.
Jude Pullen, design associate and expert at the Design Council, said: “It’s refreshing to see Kinewell’s desire to not only have a technically excellent product, but also focus on end-usability. I’m delighted to have collaborated with them to share my experiences and provide design-led approaches, knowledge and insights to improve their client feedback experience.”
Staff from Kinewell Energy are travelling to Taiwan, Japan and South Korea this month as part of the increased focus on Southeast Asia, to meet clients, showcase its solutions and visit the APAC Wind Energy Summit in Incheon, South Korea, from 26 – 28 November.
