South Korea plans $8.2B offshore wind project

A US$8.2 billion offshore demonstration wind project will be built by South Korea in the Yellow Sea.

According to the newenergyworldnetwork dot com, the project will be used to test 20 turbines produced by local manufacturers in South Korea.

The proving area off the Buan and Yeonggwang coasts will be developed in three major phases, with the first smallest phase to be complete by 2013 and used to test locally-developed 5MW-sized turbines.

This section of the project is part of South Korea’s ambitious plans to add 180 similarly-sized turbines to the project by 2016, before delivering another 300 turbines by 2019.

Korea’s head of energy and climate policy, Kang Nam-hoon said that South Korea is aiming to become the world’s third largest country in terms of wind power.