Siemens Gamesa set to power Equinor's South Korea floating wind farm pioneer

Siemens Gamesa has been lined up to supply 15MW turbines to the 750MW Firefly floating wind project in South Korea under an agreement that would see local assembly of nacelles.

Doosan Enerbility said today (Tuesday) that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Siemens Gamesa and Firefly developer Equinor over cooperation on the project, which is on track to be one of the world’s first large-scale floating wind farms.

The Korean industrial giant said in a statement that if it advances to construction, Firefly will use Siemens Gamesa turbines with nacelles assembled at Doosan’s own Changwon wind equipment plant. Doosan has a long-standing partnership with Siemens Gamesa in the South Korean offshore wind sector.

Firefly, also known as Bandibuli, is positioned to enter South Korea’s first tender for floating wind offtake deals due by the end of this year. The project, to be located 60-70km off the coast of Ulsan, has ambitions to be operational as soon as 2027.

Equinor has already lined up Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) as preferred supplier for the project’s floating substructures.

“The partnership between Doosan and Siemens Gamesa is recognised as the most realistic and optimised collaboration model to accelerate the expansion of the domestic wind power market,” said Seungwoo Son, head of Doosan Energy’s Power Service business group.

“This agreement will further solidify the partnership between the three companies, and through continued collaboration, we will contribute to the revitalisation of the domestic offshore wind power ecosystem in the future.”