Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction to develop Korea’s largest 8MW offshore wind power system

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction (DHIC) announced on June 28 that it had been selected as the main contractor for the 8MW Large-Capacity Offshore Wind Power System Development project, a state project sponsored by the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP).

DHIC, one of the five parties selected from the industry, academia and research sector, will be jointly carrying out the 48-month long project which is valued to be approximately 55 billion won. As the main contractor, DHIC will direct the design, manufacturing and demonstration of the 8MW model; Human Composites will manufacture the blades, and Seil Engineering will design and manufacture the lower section.

The Korea Institute of Material Science will be responsible for blade design support and testing, whereas the Seoul National University(SNU) R&DB Foundation will be responsible for devising measures to reduce blade noise.

The high-efficiency wind power system will be able to generate up to 8 MW of power at an average wind velocity of 10 m/s and have a utilization rate of 30% or higher even when the average wind velocity is 6.5 m/s. It will be ideal for the Korean environment which is frequently hit by typhoons and low-velocity winds, since it will be designed to be durable enough to withstand even harsh conditions like 70 m/s winds.

Moreover, large-capacity models have the advantage of reducing the Cost of Electricity (CoE) by saving on installation and power grid costs.

“With this new development, we will be able to expand our wind power system lineup to 8 MW from the current 3 MW and 5 MW lineup. The development of this model will help us aggressively penetrate the overseas wind power market, where the growing trend is for large scale models and it will also help increase the share of local supplier products in the Korean market, where foreign models currently account for more than half of the market share,” said Jinwon Mok, CEO of DHIC’s Power Service BG.

In accordance with South Korea’s 8th Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand, the country plans to increase the installed wind power capacity to a total 17.7 GW by 2030, with offshore wind power accounting for about 14 GW.
According to a report issued by the Global Wind Energy Council(GWEC) in 2017, the overall capacity of all wind power systems installed worldwide is forecasted to rapidly increase to 658GW by 2020 and to 1,454 GW by 2030.