Foreign and domestic firms jump into floating wind farm project off Ulsan

By Lim Chang-won Posted : January 24, 2019, 16:56 Updated : January 24, 2019, 16:56

[Yonhap Photo]


SEOUL -- Four South Korean and foreign teams jumped into a project to build a complex of floating wind farms through cooperation with the southeastern industrial port city of Ulsan which has been actively involved in green energy programs with government support.

A memorandum of understanding, signed in the office of Ulsan City Mayor Song Chul-ho on Thursday, calls for cooperation between Ulsan City and private investors for the creation, operation and management of floating offshore wind farms as well as the construction of local supply chains and the utilization of local enterprises.

The floating wind farm complex would be built in waters some 50 kilometers (31 miles), although a precise roadmap has yet to come.

SK E&S, a South Korean energy company involved in power generation and the development of gas fields, joined hands with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), a Denmark-based fund management company focused on energy infrastructure.

Shell, a British-Dutch oil and gas company, partnered with CoensHexicon, a joint venture between Swedish floating multi-turbine platform designer Hexicon AB and Coens, an integrated service provider in South Korea. Two others are Green Investment Group (GIG), a British specialist in green projects, and Korea Floating Wind (KFWind), an offshore wind farm company.

For two years, they will measure remote wind energy with laser equipment and survey sea surface topography, tidal currents, wave height and a marine ecosystem. Song urged the investors to maintain good communication with local fishermen, citing their concerns about the construction of wind farms.

Song had proposed a pilot project to build a floating structure with a capacity of 750 kilowatts. Later, Ulsan and central government officials agreed to build a floating wind farm with a capacity of 1.0 GW around a gas platform which ended its life span. 

Compared to fixed offshore wind farms which are generally installed in shallow waters, floating wind turbines located in deep waters can reduce visual pollution, provide better accommodation for fishing and shipping lanes, and reach stronger and more consistent winds.

However, fishermen living in Ulsan and nearby areas have opposed offshore wind farms, insisting it would curtail their operating radius. They expressed concerns that marine habitats could be damaged by noise, vibration and a possible chemical leakage from turbines. Ulsan agreed to conduct an environmental effects evaluation.

Commercial floating wind turbines are at the early phase of development. An operational floating wind farm commissioned in October 2017 off the coast of Scotland has five turbines with a total capacity of 30 MW.

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