Corio and TotalEnergies find South Korea offshore wind partner

SK ecoplant – the renewable energy subsidiary of conglomerate SK Group – will help the developers take the projects from early planning through licensing and construction to operation.

It aims to ensure a high level of local content, boost local industry and create jobs in South Korea, it stated. 

SK ecoplant will acquire an unspecified stake in the BadaEnergy portfolio – which consists of both floating and fixed-bottom offshore wind farms – subject to the completion of government approvals.  

The 1.5GW Gray Whale project, off the coast of Ulsan province, south-east Korea,will be built in three 500MW tranches: 504MW Gray Whale 1 Gray Whale 1 (504MW) Offshoreoff Ulsan, South Korea, Asia-Pacific Click to see full details, 504MW Gray Whale 2 Gray Whale 2 (504MW) Offshoreoff Ulsan, Ulsan, South Korea, Asia-Pacific Click to see full details and 504MW Gray Whale 3 Gray Whale 3 (504MW) Offshoreoff Ulsan, South Korea, Asia-Pacific Click to see full details. It is expected to be one of the world’s largest floating arrays and is due to start operations by 2027.  

The other projects are about 16km offshore of South Jeolla province in the south-west. The 500MW Geomundo project is expected to be the first floating wind farm in the south-west, while the 600MW Maenggoldo project is due to use fixed-bottom foundations.

Woojin Choi, representative director of Corio Generation Korea, said that the addition of SK ecoplant to the consortium would add to “a dedicated focus on the localisation of capital, finance and technology.” Corio Generation is the offshore wind arm of Australian investment giant Macquarie.

South Korea aims to have 12GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030, by which point it hopes to be generating 20% of its electricity from renewable sources.