Ørsted Sees Huge Offshore Wind Potential in S Korea

Ørsted A/S, the world’s largest offshore wind power producer, said it sees high potential in the Korean offshore wind power market, intending to build long-term, sustainable relationships with the Korean government and companies.

“South Korea is a peninsula surrounded by three seas,” said Park Jung-min, head of the Korean market development at Ørsted Asia Pacific. “We estimate that South Korea’s potential offshore wind power capacity can reach 30 GW.”

According to Yonhap News Agency, the Danish state-run energy firm has recently completed the establishment of its Korean branch following South Korea’s announcement of a “Renewable Energy 3020 Plan,” which aims to raise the proportion of renewable energy supply to 20 percent of total power output by the year 2030.

South Korea targets to have a total renewable energy capacity of 63.8 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, with 17.7 GW coming from wind power. Ørsted claimed that South Korea will particularly thrive from offshore wind power generation considering its geographical characteristics.

Orsted built the world’s first offshore wind farm in 1991 and has installed over 1,200 offshore wind turbines in Europe and the US to date, said The Korea Herald.

“We are building a long-term track record (here) by having relationships with Korean companies for Taiwanese projects and European projects. We are fairly confident we can collaborate with Korean companies,” Matthias Bausenwein, Orsted’s head of Asia-Pacific operations, said.

The report said that this year, Orsted signed two multi-billion contracts with Korea’s Hyundai Steel Industries and Samkang M&T to provide jacket foundations, and with LS Cable to provide the undersea cable that is used in the construction of Taiwan’s Greater Changhua 1 & 2a offshore wind farm. Greater Changhua projects are being developed by Orsted with a total capacity of 2.4 gigawatts.