The First Dedicated Offshore Wind Turbine Installation Vessel Departs Domestically

A dedicated vessel for installing wind turbines at sea has begun operation.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that the dedicated vessel 'Hyundai Frontier,' capable of installing 10MW-class offshore wind turbines, has completed development and held its launching ceremony on the 13th at HSG Sungdong Shipbuilding in Tongyeong, Gyeongnam.

The offshore wind dedicated installation vessel integrates equipment so that it can perform both transportation and installation in one ship, unlike the previous method of operating separate barges for transporting equipment and installation. It is expected not only to install wind turbines stably but also to improve work speed by more than 50% compared to the existing method.

Hyundai Steel Industry invested a total of 130 billion KRW (11.6 billion KRW government support) from 2018 to 2023 in the development of the offshore wind dedicated installation vessel Hyundai Frontier.

The Hyundai Frontier will be immediately deployed to the Jeju Hallim Offshore Wind Farm (100MW) construction site to carry out practical installation work combined with demonstration until September. Additionally, from January 2024, it is planned to be utilized at the Jeonnam Sinan Jaeun Offshore Wind Farm (100MW).

Cheon Young-gil, Director of the Energy Policy Office at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, said, "With the development of the offshore wind dedicated installation vessel, we expect domestic offshore wind installation companies to expand their participation in large-scale offshore wind projects overseas, and for installation vessels built with our excellent technology to be exported worldwide." He added, "Since offshore wind power has great synergy with related industries such as shipbuilding and plants, where we have strengths, we will actively support its development as a second shipbuilding industry."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.