Equinor, Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) and the Korean power company Korea East-West Power (EWP) have formed a consortium to develop the floating offshore wind project Donghae 1 off Ulsan in South Korea.
The consortium is currently launching the development of a 200MW floating wind farm to be located close to the KNOC-operated Donghae natural gas field off the coast of Ulsan in South Korea.
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.
“We are very pleased to be member of the partnership involved in realising the first floating offshore wind farm in Asia,” says Stephen Bull, senior vice president for the wind and low carbon cluster of New Energy Solutions in Equinor.
“If we succeed in realising the project, the Donghae floating offshore wind project will be the world’s biggest floating wind farm, 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,” says Bull.
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 49GW to its renewable production capacity by 2030, of which solar power accounts for 31GW and wind power 16GW.
(Source: Equinor)