Doosan Heavy Industries to Develop 8MW Floating Offshore Wind Power System

[Asia Economy Reporter Suyeon Woo] Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction announced on the 2nd that it has been selected as the lead institution for the second phase of the "8MW-class Floating Offshore Wind Power System Development" project, organized by the Korea Energy Technology Evaluation Institute, and has signed an agreement.

In this project, Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction participates as part of a consortium formed with Gyeongsangnam-do, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, Korea South-East Power, Jeju Energy Corporation, Gyeongnam Technopark, Gyeongnam Institute of Science and Technology, Korea Research Institute of Ships and Ocean Engineering (KRISO), Samkang M&T, Korea Maritime Technology, and Seho Engineering.

In the first phase, which lasted eight months from May last year, four consortia linked with local governments were selected to conduct activities such as discovering demonstration candidate sites, establishing design standards, and reviewing floating body candidates. In the second phase, through competition among the consortia participating in the first phase, the Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction consortium was solely selected.

The consortium will carry out the design, manufacturing, demonstration, and commercial complex discovery of the floating offshore wind power system over the next 51 months, aiming to develop a Korean-style floating offshore wind power system. This project is supported with 27 billion KRW over 51 months through the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s Korea Energy Technology Evaluation Institute’s core renewable energy technology development program.

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction will apply the 8MW-class model currently being developed as a national project to this task. The project demonstration is planned to be conducted at the wave and wind power generation test site operated by KRISO in Jeju. Having started its wind power business in 2005, Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction has installed 239.5MW of wind turbines domestically, of which 96MW are offshore wind power.

Floating offshore wind power, compared to conventional fixed offshore wind power, incurs higher complex construction costs but offers advantages in utilization rate and community acceptance by being installed in distant seas with superior wind resources. Overseas, since 2009, Europe and Japan have been demonstrating floating offshore wind power systems as future technologies and promoting commercialization. According to the offshore wind power roadmap announced in July last year, Korea is expected to activate the floating offshore wind power market, with a floating market size projected to reach approximately 7GW.

Park Inwon, Vice President of Plant EPC BG at Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, said, "Participation in this project has provided Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction with a foothold to expand its offshore wind power business not only in fixed but also floating types." He added, "We will do our best to achieve successful results in this floating offshore wind power system development project, which opens new possibilities for domestic offshore wind power."