South Korea to build offshore hydrogen plants powered by floating wind

May 7, 2021, by Adnan Durakovic

Ten major South Korean companies, municipalities, and organisations are spearheading a project to develop and build offshore hydrogen production plants powered by floating wind.

The first phase of the project includes the construction of a 100 MW demonstration electrolyzer plant in the East Sea.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the establishment of the demonstration plant was signed on Thursday, 6 May, at the Ulsan Techno Industrial Complex.

The signatories include the shipbuilding major Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI), the state-owned Korea National Oil Corp. (KNOC), the City of Ulsan, SK Gas, Korea East-West Power, and UNIST, among others.

The signing ceremony was also attended by South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in.

The hydrogen production plants will be built at the Donghae floating wind farm located some 58 kilometres off Ulsan, near the Donghae 1 gas field which is expected to end production in 2022.

The 100 MW demonstration plant is expected to be completed by 2025.

In the second phase of the project, a production plant with a capacity of 1.2 GW is planned to be built and come online by 2030.

HHI will be in charge of developing the electrolyzer plants for the production of hydrogen.

KNOC and SK Gas will develop the floating wind farms needed to power the plants, HHI said.

Organizations such as Ulsan City will be in charge of the system improvement and commercialization support, while Korea East-West Power will be tasked with producing the green hydrogen power and developing business models.

The project is part of HHI’s Hydrogen Dream 2030 Roadmap announced in March. The roadmap aims to build a hydrogen value chain from production to transportation, storage, and utilization of hydrogen on land and offshore.

The South Korean government announced a roadmap to revitalize the hydrogen economy in January 2019, and proposed the goal of producing 6.2 million hydrogen cars by 2040, establishing 1,200 hydrogen charging stations, and producing 15 GW of fuel cells for power generation.

”Hyundai Heavy Industries is striving to develop technology to become a global leading company in the field of green hydrogen infrastructure as well as smart ships and eco-friendly ships,” HHI’s President Young-Seok Han said.

”Together, we hope to internalize technology and create new business, ultimately helping Korea to lead the global hydrogen society.”

This is not HHI’s first venture into floating wind. In September 2020, HHI and KNOC signed an agreement through which HHI will deliver floating foundations for the 200 MW Donghae 1 floating wind farm.