A consortium of companies including Equinor, Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) and the Korean power company Korea East-West Power (EWP) aim to develop a floating offshore wind project off the coast of Ulsan, South Korea.
The 200 megawatt (MW) Donghae 1 floating wind farm will be located close to the KNOC-operated Donghae natural gas field.
The consortium will carry out a feasibility study for the wind farm, including use of the Donghae 1 platform as a substation for a possible wind farm.
Pending results of the feasibility study, the consortium will start constructing a floating offshore wind farm in 2022, with possible power production start-up in 2024.
According to Stephen Bull, senior vice president for the wind and low carbon cluster of New Energy Solutions in Equinor, the project will be the first floating offshore wind farm in Asia and the largest globally – more than twice the size of Hywind Tampen on the Norwegian continental shelf.
“A floating offshore wind farm of this size will help further increase the competitiveness of floating offshore wind power in the future,” Bull said.
In February, Equinor announced it had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with KNOC to jointly explore the opportunities to develop commercial floating offshore wind in South Korea.
South Korea has decided to transform the country’s energy mix from nuclear power and coal to renewable energy. The share of renewable energy in its power production is estimated to increase to 20% by 2030; aiming to add 49 gigawatts (GW) to its renewable production capacity by 2030, of which solar power accounts for 31 GW and wind power 16 GW.