A Korean energy utility and one of the country’s biggest industrial names, Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI), have joined forces to build a 12-turbine offshore wind farm off the coast of Jeju Island. Samsung will supply its as-yet-untested 7MW turbine.
As previously reported by Windpower Offshore, Jeju island has some of South Korea’s best wind resources. Lying off the country’s south east coast, the island’s government has adopted an offshore wind capacity target of 380MW by 2016. It is also aiming to be entirely powered by renewable sources by 2030.
The 84MW project is scheduled to begin generating electricity in 2015. It will be built by Daejeong Offshore Wind Power Co, a development company created by project partners SHI (60%) and Korea Southern Power Corporation (40%).
The two partners have already signalled that they will consider a second project phase if the first is successful.
It has been widely reported that Samsung plans to test a prototype of its 7MW turbine at the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre in north east Scotland. Such an offshore test would be necessary prior to the machine’s deployment in European waters. It is unclear whether Samsung will have to complete a similar test elsewhere before installing its turbines in South Korean waters.
A UK technology company, David Brown Gear Systems, is designing the turbine’s gearbox.
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