Vestas and the Gray Whale: turbine giant to equip massive South Korean floating wind farm
South Korean industrial giants see phased 1.5GW project as springboard to global growth in floating wind sector
Vestas has been lined up to supply 33 of its V236-15MW turbines to South Korea after preferred bidders were selected for Gray Whale 3, part of a phased floating offshore wind project poised for development by BadaEnergy, a joint venture between Corio Generation, TotalEnergies and SK Ecoplant
BadaEnergy announced last week that South Korean shipbuilding giant Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) has been selected as preferred bidder for the engineering, procurement and construction contracts that will underpin the Gray Whale 3 offshore wind farm, to be located about 60km east of South Korea's Ulsan port.
A consortium made up of HHI and Doris Engineering was selected in August last year to perform front-end engineering and design studies for the project.
HHI has now joined a task force with teams from BadaEnergy and Vestas "to continue optimising design and industrialising the execution plan of the fabrication of the 33 hulls, the integration of the turbines and the installation to the site," the joint venture company stated.
The floating offshore wind projects, denominated Gray Whale 1, 2 and 3, will result in 1.5GW of installed capacity, with construction expected to begin in 2025, and first commercial operation targeted for 2028.
The 33 turbines to be supplied by Vestas will provide installed capacity for 450MW on the Gray Whale 3 phase, a spokesperson for the Danish OEM confirmed.
"Once the project’s third phase is completed, the wind farm is expected to be one of the world’s largest floating offshore wind farms," BadaEnergy stated.
A spokesperson for Vestas confirmed that the order for which the Danish OEM had been selected related to the same a 495 MW floating offshore wind project in South Korea.
Srdan Cenic, country manager of Vestas Korea & head of sales offshore of Vestas Asia Pacific stated: “We are honored to have been selected as the preferred turbine supplier and collaborate with BadaEnergy and HHI for the Gray Whale 3 floating offshore wind project.”
Industrial ambitions
BadaEnergy said HHI's experience of supplying floating production systems for the oil and gas industry would allow the latter to "rapidly implement its strategy of localising all stages of offshore wind projects" and added that this relationship was expected to help HHI "sharpen its competitive edge and export its technologies to the overseas market by participating in Korea’s first and one of the world’s largest floating offshore wind projects."
BadaEnergy director Woojin Choi stated: “We believe this is one of the most significant milestones in our great journey towards floating offshore wind. To achieve the global net-zero target by 2050, more than 2,000 GW of offshore wind projects need to be built globally... Korea’s supply chain participating in our floating offshore wind projects will have an excellent opportunity to enter the global floating offshore wind market."
HHI has already worked as a leading EPC contractor for TotalEnergies in a range of projects in the oil and gas sector stretching back to 2000.
Gray Whale 3’s project director Guillaume Le Marerhal said. “As (happened) 25 years ago with oil and gas, we are convinced that the floating offshore wind project in Ulsan will serve as an example of a revival of the local economy and the best practice of Korea’s technological prowess being widely recognized overseas, by creating synergy with local companies centered on Ulsan to establish local supply chain of offshore wind.”
Korea afloat
The Danish OEM was lined up to to supply and install 84 of its V236-15.0 machines at water depths between 120 and 150 metres on floating foundations, also off the coast of Ulsan in the southeastern part of the Korean Peninsula.
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