Front-end engineering has begun on 1 GW of floating offshore wind power facilities for the Haewoori 2 and 3 projects in Ulsan, South Korea, a major advance in the deployment of the three-legged WindFloat platform developed by Principle Power Inc., based in California.
The company is a subcontractor to Norway-based Aker Solutions AB, which has just secured the initial contract for Haewoori Offshore Wind, which is backed by Denmark’s Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. Aker will also carry out construction planning and support local procurement.
The project puts “Korea on track to become the first market in the world to deploy floating wind technology on a commercial scale,” says Aaron Smith, chief commercial officer at Principle Power.
To date, the developer has installed WindFloat platforms supporting 75 MW of turbines off Portugal and Scotland. Its first three commercial platforms support 8.4 MW turbines in 330 feet of water about 12 miles off the Portuguese coast that has been generating power since 2020.
This was followed a year later at Kincardine Field in Scotland, 9 miles from Aberdeen. Floating in waters 200 to 260 feet deep, its five platforms support 9.5 MW turbines.
The company aims to install 300 floating turbines by 2030.
