Wind Energy – South Korea
Another milestone in the MunmuBaram-project was just reached when the project was granted two additional Electricity Business Licenses (EBL) last Friday morning.
With now a total of three EBLs, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has granted the MunmuBaram project exclusive development rights to progress the total planned output of 1.3-gigawatt (GW).
The MunmuBaram is a floating offshore wind project off the coast of Ulsan, South Korea. It is a joint venture (JV) between Shell (80%) and CoensHexicon (20%), where CoensHexicon is a JV between Hexicon (49%) and Korean company COENS Co (51%).
The first EBL out of a total of three possible was secured for the area in November 2021. The hope was to secure all three which would take the project further into the intermediate stage of development, this goal has now been reached. This means that the project can go full steam ahead towards the next step which is to secure a grid connection agreement.
Since 2019, the MunmuBaram-project has been carrying out the groundworks such as the wind data measurement campaigns. In September 2021, MunmuBaram was the first floating offshore wind developer in South Korea to successfully complete the geotechnical and geophysical surveys needed. It currently continues to progress the project development through Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), marine traffic survey, cultural heritage survey and other activities.
Subject to future investment decisions, the MunmuBaram-project will be developed in phases, and once constructed, expected to generate up to 4.2 terawatt-hour (TWh) of clean electricity every year.