Doosan seals deal to assemble Siemens Gamesa offshore wind turbines in South Korea
Korean industrial conglomerate and European giant also agree on knowledge exchange on technology as installation is expected by 2026
Doosan Enerbility, formerly Doosan Heavy Industries, will assemble Siemens Gamesa offshore wind turbines in South Korea as part of a framework agreement between the two companies that also includes a knowledge exchange on technology.
Under the alliance, the Korean conglomerate will assemble Siemens Gamesa’s offshore nacelles in a Doosan facility currently in the design phase and undertake turbine assembly in staging harbours - including quayside pre-assembly work and the erection of turbine towers in the installation port.
It will also carry out the offshore construction of projects using Siemens Gamesa machines and perform offshore service on selected orders involving the European group's turbines.
“We are eager to bring our market-leading offshore skills including our unique offshore direct drive nacelle technology to South Korea,” Siemens Gamesa offshore chief executive Marc Becker said at a signing ceremony in Hamburg.
“We will also greatly benefit from Doosan’s deep understanding of the Korean market to accelerate the country’s energy transition.”
Siemens Gamesa is the undisputed offshore wind turbine market leader among western OEMs, and has 14MW machines on offer with a capacity rating of up to 15MW via a power boost.
But Doosan already has some experience in the still emerging, but promising, South Korean offshore wind market, where it has provided turbines to the 30MW Tamra and the 60MW Southwest phase 1 offshore wind pilot arrays.
“Both of us being companies with our own offshore wind turbine models and solid track record, we aim to cooperate on broadening our participation in the Korean offshore wind power market and actively pursue promotion of the domestic offshore wind power ecosystem,” said Hongook Park, CEO of Doosan Enerbility’s Power Services unit.
“Through this partnership, Doosan looks forward to boosting its competitiveness across the overall offshore wind power sector through measures, such as the upgrading of existing products and diversification of models.”
The partnership agreement includes targets that foresee installation off South Korea from 2026 onwards.
A growing number of Western developers (Ocean Winds, Aker Offshore, Equinor) and OEMs are currently pushing into the South Korean offshore wind market as the country is trying to lessen its dependence on foreign energy imports and build up 12GW of wind at sea by 2030.
Siemens Gamesa rival Vestas last year had said it may open factories in South Korea after forming a joint venture with tower manufacturer CS Wind.