Korea Floating Wind (“KF Wind”), the joint venture between Ocean Winds and Aker Offshore Wind has obtained its second Electric Business License (EBL) from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of the Republic of Korea for a capacity of 450 MW.

Obtaining the second EBL represents another key step towards realizing the world’s first large scale commercial floating wind project. The EBL is a mandatory requirement to generate and supply electricity in South Korea and follows the 870 MW EBL that KF Wind was granted at the end of January 2022. Overall, KF Wind’s floating wind project now holds a 1.32 GW EBL capacity, covering the 1.2 GW net capacity target (based on grid limits), and able to power the equivalent of over 1.3 million households.

KF Wind management team shared their impression.

“This second EBL secures us continued exclusive development rights in the East Blue Power area, which KF Wind is developing in collaboration with our partner Kumyang Green Power, an Ulsan-based electrical engineering company and renewable energy developer. Kumyang plays an important role in supporting KF Wind’s relationship with the local administrations and the local communities, and in the engagement with the supply chain,” said Guzman Figar, Project Director of KF Wind.

“The KF Wind project is exciting from an engineering perspective due to its deep waters and distance from shore. The project is also challenging due to its size and complexity. A key success factor for us is therefore to leverage our knowledge and experience from similar projects in Europe and to build a strong technical competence and presence in Korea.”  said Øyvind Larsen, Technical Director in KF Wind.  

And Sponsors of KF Wind mentioned highly about this milestone.

“Ocean Winds celebrates this second success, and we are very proud of the efforts of our South Korean team in building relationships of trust with our stakeholders. We are coming together to realize this key floating offshore wind project for South Korea which will contribute toward the national energy transition to decarbonize, as well as the economic development of the region of Ulsan. KF Wind could contribute up to 77% of content manufactured in Korea, of which around 63% would be fabricated in the Ulsan area, resulting in the creation of thousands of jobs and the reindustrialization of the region,” said Grzegorz Gorski, Chief Operating Officer of Ocean Winds.

“Following the first EBL granted earlier this year, I am very pleased to see KF Wind awarded the second EBL. This confirms a strong vote of confidence from the South Korean government and sustains the pace for South Korea to be the leading market for GW-scale, floating offshore wind power generation. Together with our partners, we are on track to build offshore Ulsan the world’s first industrial-scale floating offshore wind farms by 2028,” said Philippe Kavafyan, Chief Executive Officer of Aker Offshore Wind.

KF Wind has already commenced most of the field studies and is continuing its engagement with key local users of the ocean as required to secure the remaining permits. The permits are expected to be approved during 2023, with the objective of reaching financial close in 2024.