Corio, TotalEnergies award FEED contract for 504 MW floating wind farm in South Korea

Corio Generation and TotalEnergies have selected a consortium comprising Technip Energies, Subsea 7, and Samkang M&T to perform Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) for their 504 MW floating wind project in South Korea.

The contract covers engineering for the floating foundation, mooring, and inter-array cable in collaboration with a wind turbine supplier.

The design of the floating foundation will include Technip Energies’ in-house floater technology INO15™, a three-column semi-submersible floater with a capacity of 15 MW and suited for large series production, according to the company.

For Technip Energies, this contract comes only a few months after the company was awarded FEED work by Equinor for its 800 MW Firefly floating wind project offshore South Korea. The contract with Equinor also includes Technip Energies’ INO15™ technology for the design of the substructures.

Corio and TotalEnergies’ floating wind farm, called Ulsan Gray Whale 3, is planned to be built around 60 to 70 kilometres from Onsan Port in Ulsan.

The project is one of the three phases of the 1.5 GW offshore wind development that the partners are developing off the coast of Ulsan.

A year ago, Corio Generation and TotalEnergies obtained an electric business license (EBL) from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s Electricity Regulatory Commission for the project’s first phase of 504 MW.

According to the developers, this was the first floating offshore wind project in Korea to be awarded an EBL.

Upon being granted the licence last year, the companies said that detailed environmental impact assessments would commence immediately on the first phase, with construction expected to start in 2024.