Doosan leads South Korean 10MW wind turbine plan to halt 'aggressive foreign advance'

A group of South Korean energy heavyweights including industrial giant Doosan plan to cooperate over the launch a 10MW wind turbine to help fend off “aggressively advancing” foreign competition”.

Doosan Enerbility – formerly known as Doosan Heavy Industries – said it will work with four of South Korea’s largest power groups and local engineering firms to develop the turbine in a move it claimed will “connect the domestic supply chain from parts to wind turbines to offshore wind power public complexes”.

South Korea is emerging as a key offshore wind market in the next phase of global expansion for the sector, with ambitions for 14.3GW in place by the end of the decade and plans to offer up to 8GW under tenders over the next two years.

Doosan Enerbility will work with Korea Offshore Wind Power, Korea East-West Power, Korea Southern Power and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power on the 10MW turbine project, with a view to testing offshore from 2027 and "expand the localisation rate of parts to 70% by next year".

The manufacturing group said it will invest 50 billion won ($373m) in factory expansion and R&D to support the project, which will develop a turbine “tailored to the domestic low-wind environment, and is a wind turbine with a rotor diameter of 205-metres (blade length of 100 metres) that can generate power with a utilisation rate of more than 30% even at an average wind speed of 6.5metres/second”.

Seungwoo Son, head of Doosan Enerbility’s Power Service unit, said: “This project will be an opportunity for Korean ultra-large offshore wind turbines to secure competitiveness in terms of quality, cost, and delivery time.

“We will also take the lead in establishing an energy security foundation in the domestic wind power market where foreign wind turbines are aggressively advancing, and in revitalising the domestic wind power ecosystem.”

Doosan Enerbility currently has 3MW, 5.5MW and 8MW turbines on its books.