Norway's Equinor, Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) and the Korean power company Korea East-West Power (EWP) formed a consortium to develop the first floating offshore wind farm in Asia, Equinor announced on Thursday.
The consortium is currently launching the development of a 200-megawatt floating wind farm, Donghae 1, which plans 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, including the potential use of the Donghae 1 gas platform as a substation for the wind farm.
Pending results of the feasibility study, the consortium will start construction of a floating offshore wind farm in 2022, with possible power production start-up in 2024.
'We are very pleased to be a member of the partnership involved in realizing the first floating offshore wind farm in Asia,' said Stephen Bull, senior vice president for the wind and low carbon cluster of New Energy Solutions in Equinor.
South Korea plans 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, with the aim of adding 49 gigawatts to its renewable production capacity by 2030, of which solar power will account for 31 gigawatts and wind power for 16 gigawatts.
By Murat Temizer
Anadolu Agency
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