[C Tech Now] Floating Wind Turbines on the Sea... 24 Trillion Won Market to Emerge Next Month

Ulsan's 5 Floating Offshore Wind Projects Pass Environmental Review
Ministry of Industry to Hold Korea's First Floating Offshore Wind Bidding in October
Floating Platforms Connected by Subsea Mooring Systems
Advantages of Using Wide Offshore Areas... Also Higher Efficiency
Major Countries Like UK, Norway, Japan Adopt Floating Offshore Wind Successively

Aerial view of the floating offshore wind farm of Highwind Scotland. Source=Equinor

This October, the government will conduct the first-ever floating offshore wind power auction in South Korea. The floating offshore wind power market is expected to reach approximately 24 trillion KRW over the next decade based on the government's scheduled plans. The competition to dominate the floating offshore wind power market is heating up intensely.

According to industry sources on the 9th, all five floating offshore wind power projects underway in Ulsan?Haewoolyi (1.5 gigawatts, GW), Gwisin-gorae (1.5 GW), KF Wind (1.125 GW), Munmu Baram (1.125 GW), and Banditbul-i (0.75 GW)?have recently undergone the government's environmental impact assessment.

The environmental impact assessment is a procedure that comprehensively evaluates the potential environmental impacts of constructing and operating offshore wind power complexes and establishes mitigation plans to obtain government approval. It involves consultations between the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, with final approval granted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Passing the environmental impact assessment is mandatory to participate in the government-conducted offshore wind power auction.

In the offshore wind power competitive bidding roadmap announced last August, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy stated it would announce auction volumes of 0.5 to 1.0 GW of floating offshore wind power in the second half of this year. If a successful bidder is selected this time, it will mark the first floating offshore wind power operator in South Korea.

The government plans to conduct a total of 3 to 4 floating offshore wind power auctions by the first half of 2026. The total expected generation capacity is 2.5 to 3.0 GW. Compared to fixed offshore wind power, floating offshore wind power requires higher project costs. The wind power industry anticipates an investment cost of 4 trillion KRW per 500 megawatts (MW). For 3 GW, this translates into a market worth approximately 24 trillion KRW.

How Are Wind Turbines Floating at Sea?

Wind power is broadly divided into onshore and offshore wind power. Offshore wind power traditionally consisted only of fixed types, similar to onshore, but technological advances have led to the emergence of floating offshore wind power. Floating offshore wind power involves floating a buoyant structure weighing several thousand tons on the sea and installing wind turbines on top to generate electricity. This buoyant structure is connected to the seabed via a mooring system (a device that anchors ships or underwater facilities in place), enabling stable mooring even in strong winds and waves. Currently, floating offshore wind power commercially operating in the North Sea is known to withstand typhoons.

Floating offshore wind power can be installed in water depths exceeding 60 meters, allowing the utilization of wind resources over a wider marine area. Generally, wind speeds increase the farther from land, improving wind power generation efficiency. The average annual wind speed at a point 58 km off the east coast where the Ulsan floating offshore wind power complex is being developed is known to exceed 8.16 meters per second. Floating offshore wind power can be installed far from the coast, minimizing visual impact. Concerns about damage to fishing grounds and the environment are also relatively low.

Floating offshore wind power consists of wind turbines that generate electricity, buoyant structures supporting the turbines, mooring systems that anchor the structures to the seabed, anchors that fix the installations to the seabed, and power transmission systems that send the generated electricity to land. Since the turbines must withstand enormous weight while floating on the sea and maintain stability amid rough and irregular currents, the role of the buoyant structures and other substructures is crucial.

Floating offshore wind power can be classified into semi-submersible, barge, spar (cylindrical), and tension leg platform types based on the form of the substructure. Among these, the barge type, the earliest form, installs wind turbines on a thin, wide deck and is used in relatively calm wave areas. The semi-submersible type consists of 3 to 5 connected cylinders, with a wind turbine installed on one of the columns. It can be applied to various water depths and offers high stability. The spar type installs wind turbines on a long, single cylindrical structure. It is simple to manufacture but can only be installed in deep waters. The tension leg type connects a column to the center of the semi-submersible buoyant structure and installs the turbine on top; it is stable but costly.

Global Race for Floating Offshore Wind Power

Floating offshore wind power is being rapidly adopted worldwide. The world's first floating offshore wind power was the Hywind Scotland wind farm built by Equinor, a Norwegian state-owned energy company. It has a capacity of 30 MW and has been generating electricity since October 2017. Located 30 km off the coast in the North Sea, it was constructed using a single cylindrical design. The total height, including blades measuring 154 meters, reaches 253 meters. This means a structure taller than Namsan Tower (237 meters including the tower) and 63 Building (249 meters) is floating on the sea. After the potential of floating offshore wind power was confirmed by Hywind Scotland, major countries have been successively adopting floating offshore wind power.

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)'s "2024 Floating Offshore Wind Outlook" report, the UK, Norway, France, Japan, the United States, and China are operating or developing floating offshore wind power.

The UK is the most active in floating offshore wind power. Besides Hywind Scotland, since 2021, Principle Power has operated the 50 MW Kincardine floating offshore wind farm. The UK plans to build a total of 50 GW of offshore wind farms by 2030, of which 5 GW will be floating offshore wind power.

Norway is one of the leading countries in floating wind power. Equinor's Hywind Tampen in Norway has a capacity of 88 MW and is currently the world's largest floating offshore wind farm. It is located 140 km offshore, a distance similar to that between Seoul and Daejeon. This power complex, operational since August last year, supplies renewable energy to nearby offshore oil and gas facilities.

France has announced plans to build half of its offshore wind power capacity as floating by 2050, expected to reach about 20 GW. ?lectricit? de France (EDF) successfully installed a 25 MW floating offshore wind power facility about 40 km off the coast in 2023. This wind power installation was the first to utilize a tension leg buoyant structure. Japan is progressing with the 16.8 MW floating offshore wind power Goto project, scheduled for completion in January 2026.

Floating offshore wind power is expected to grow rapidly in the future. The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) forecasted in its "2023 Global Offshore Wind Report" that 10.9 GW of floating offshore wind power will be installed worldwide by 2030 and 26.2 GW by 2032, accounting for 6% of total wind installations. Det Norske Veritas (DNV) predicts that global offshore wind capacity will expand from 29 GW in 2019 to 1,748 GW by 2050, with floating offshore wind accounting for 264 GW, or 15% of total offshore wind capacity.

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