Utility Korea Electric Power Corporation has named consultancy K2 Management to help scope out construction of the Asian nation’s first floating wind farm, off Ulsan Metropolitan city, for the project’s development consortium.
The assignment, covering the pre-feasibility phase of a 200MW array at a site around 50km offshore in the East Sea, is planned as a “testbed” pilot that is expected to be built out into a commercial-scale development as large as 1.4GW.
K2 Management’s contract encompasses high-level strategy for operation of the project, including capital and operations expenditure estimates, commercialisation and expansion options, and the design and technical requirements for wind turbine technology and floating foundations.
“In our quest to deliver the stable supply of electric power to Korea, our portfolio of clean energy projects spans wind and solar PV across Asia and the Middle East,” said Korea Electric Power’s subsidiary KEPCO E&C in a statement.
“We are excited to be embracing floating wind power in the East Sea and appointing K2 Management to support us in this role to leverage their existing offshore wind expertise from across the globe. We look forward to our collaboration and the ultimate delivery of a successful floating project.”
K2 Management’s South Korea director Jung Kwang-Woon added: “We are looking forward to bringing floating offshore wind to the shores of South Korea. There are many challenges in commercialising innovative technology like floating foundations, but [we] will bring its knowledge and experience from early-stage floating projects and extensive offshore projects to deliver better energy projects for both our client and for Korea as a whole.”
In June, one of the consortium members, Macquarie-owned Green Investment Group (GIG), installed a maiden floating Lidar unit at the project site, marking the first deployment of infrastructure for which a memorandum of understanding was signed in January between Ulsan and groups led by utility SK E&S, oil giant Shell and developer Wind Power Korea, as well as GIG.
