A consortium comprised of Technip Energies, Subsea 7 and Samkang M&T has been awarded major engineering contract for the Gray Whale 3 floating wind farm off South Korea.
Developed by Corio Generation and TotalEnergies, Gray Whale 3 lies around 40 miles off the port of Onsan on the country’s east coast.
With capacity eyed at just over 500MW, the scheme and forms one tranche of a larger 1.5GW project being developed by Corio and the French supermajor off the coast of Ulsan.
The latest contract award – the value of which was not disclosed – covers front end engineering and design (FEED) for the floater, mooring, and inter-array cable (IAC) in collaboration with an unspecified wind turbine supplier.
The floating foundation will use TechnipEnergies’ own in-house technology system, dubbed INO15.
Offering a platform for turbines of up to 15MW, the system is a three columns semi-submersible floater which is “well suited for large series production,” the engineering group noted.
The award follows a similar contract issued by Equinor in April, which will see Technip tackle FEED for the Norwegian player’s Firefly project – also based off South Korea and set to use INO15 technology.
Technip Energies’ SVP for carbon free solutions Laure Mandrou said: “We are glad to have been selected, together with Subsea 7 and Samkang, to perform the FEED of this important offshore wind project. While leveraging our in-house floater technology INO15 and the complementarity of strong industrial players, we are excited to contribute to build the future of the floating offshore wind in South Korea fostering the global energy transition.”
Samkang M&T chairman Song Moo-suk said the floating project was “a breakthrough alternative” to the limitations of fixed-bottom projects, requiring both cutting-edge technology and construction capabilities.
“Based on the know-how accumulated through successful offshore wind substructure projects such as Taiwan and the UK, we will secure a firm position as a global leader.”
Meanwhile, other floating nearby wind projects are also in the pipeline, with various memoranda of understanding signed between local government and developers.
One venture – KF Wind – will use floating platforms developed by OceanWinds in collaboration with Aker Offshore Wind, while other agreements would see similar projects built by the likes of RWE and the Green Investment Group (GIG).
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