South Korean Floating Wind Attracts Big Names

The City of Ulsan has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with four domestic and foreign partnerships and investors to build and maintain floating wind farms, as well as to create a local supply chain in South Korea.

The four developers include a partnership between Royal Dutch Shell and CoensHexicon, which is a joint venture between Sweden’s floating multi-turbine platform designer Hexicon AB and Coens, a South Korean integrated services provider.

The second partnership is between South Korea’s energy company SK E&S and Denmark’s Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP).

Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (GIG) is the third entity, and Korea Floating Wind (KFWind) is the fourth. KFWind is reportedly cooperating with the floating foundations developer Principle Power on the project.

A 750kW pilot unit is expected to be installed in June 2019 and run for six months.

Later on, a 1GW floating wind farm would be built around an out-of-commission gas platform. The City of Ulsan has not provided the timeline for the development of the 1GW wind farm.

South Korea’s Renewable Energy 3020 Implementation Plan calls for the development of 12GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030.