South Korea could soon be home to planet’s largest floating wind farm

Energy powerhouse Equinor has formed a consortium with the Korea National Oil Corporation and Korea East-West Power to develop a floating offshore wind project.

In an announcement Thursday, Equinor said the consortium would undertake a feasibility study for the 200 megawatt project, which would be located off the coast of Ulsan, South Korea.

Pending the results of that study, construction of a floating offshore wind farm will commence in 2022, with the possibility of “power production start-up” taking place in 2024.

Stephen Bull, senior vice president for the wind and low carbon cluster of New Energy Solutions at Equinor, said the company was “very pleased to be member of the partnership involved in realizing the first floating offshore wind farm in Asia.”

Bull added that if the project was successfully realized, it would be the world’s biggest floating wind farm.

Equinor already operates Hywind Scotland, the world’s “first full-scale commercial floating offshore wind farm.” Located off the coast of Scotland, the facility has a capacity of 30-megawatts and started production in 2017.