Ocean Winds is the majority shareholder of Korea Floating Wind Power Co Ltd. (KF Wind). KF Wind is developing three offshore wind projects off Ulsan coast, in the South East of the Korean Peninsula.
Since August 2020, the Korean Government identified the area of floating offshore wind off the Ulsan coast in which the three KF Wind projects are located, as priority project within the Green New Deal framework. Following, in October 2020, KF Wind installed three floating LiDARs, one for each of the sites. The next major milestone for the projects is the Electricity Business License application, which is expected to be submitted in November 2021 after having collected and dully analysed 12 months of seasonal data from the LiDARs.
The KF Wind projects are in > 200m waters depth, 80km from shore. Projects in such deep waters are not feasible using traditional bottom-fixed technology. For this reason, KF Wind will use floating platforms, a technology OW has pioneered and is one of the world leader following the construction of WindFloat Atlantic in Portugal and its experience in the development of other floating wind farms in France and California.
The main impact of the project will be its contribution to the local economy and employment opportunities during development, construction and operation. The main local contents in Ulsan are expected to be the steel industry, ports and shipyards.
KF Wind team which was a year ago 2 FTE and is now 14 FTE force, continuously growing, has also launched a thorough socio economic analysis of the projects over their life cycle to measure precisely the impact and creation of jobs for Ulsan and its surrounding region.
The consortium is also committed to continuously working together with fisheries associations and other local stakeholders to ensure the projects are well situated and developed responsibly and with the highest environmental and governance standards for the country.
We expect also to support the education of local workforce and to accompany Ulsan Metropolitan City and the local supply chain to export and become a strong player fabrication hub to supply the fast growing global demand of floating wind technology.
