BadaEnergy, a joint venture of Corio Generation, TotalEnergies and SK Ecoplant, has chosen Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) as the preferred bidder for the engineering, procurement and construction of its Ulsan Gray Whale 3 floating offshore wind farm in South Korea.

Ulsan Gray Whale 3 is part of the 1.5GW Gray Whale complex.

The complex will be built in three phases. To be located 60–70km offshore the port of Ulsan, it will be one of the largest floating offshore wind projects in the world.

BadaEnergy picked HHI and Doris Engineering consortium to provide front-end engineering design solutions including services for floating, mooring and inter-array cables in August 2022.

HHI is partnering with BadaEnergy and Danish wind turbine maker Vestas, which was selected as the preferred turbine supplier.

Together, they are looking to optimise the design and industrialise the execution plan for the fabrication of 33 hulls, turbine integration and onsite installation.

With a preferred bidder such as HHI, the developer aims to rapidly implement a strategy to localise all of the wind farm’s stages.

BadaEnergy claims that HHI’s experience in the construction of offshore plants can sharpen its competitive edge locally while exporting its technologies overseas.

The 1.5GW Gray Whale project will be located in public waters. Construction of the three phases is expected to begin in 2025, with the first commercial operations scheduled to begin in 2028.

BadaEnergy co-representative director Woojin Choi stated: “We believe this is one of the most significant milestones in our great journey towards floating offshore wind. To achieve the global net-zero target by 2050, more than 2,000GW of offshore wind projects need to be built globally, the majority of which are floating offshore wind. 

“Korea’s supply chain participating in our floating offshore wind projects will have an excellent opportunity to enter the global floating offshore wind market. Also, we believe our floating offshore wind projects in Ulsan will help Ulsan City achieve its net zero targets and be designated as a special district for distributed energy, attracting innovative companies that require a renewable energy source for electricity.”

HHI sales operations head Seung-Yong Park stated: “We are very pleased to have been selected as the preferred EPC bidder in one of the world’s largest floating offshore wind projects. With our accumulated experience and technologies, HHI will make every effort to ensure the Gray Whale 3 project’s success and the establishment of a future energy ecosystem.”