📋 Tender Overview
Scope :
The Gray Whale 3 Floating Offshore Windfarm is planned to be developed around 60-70km from Ulsan Port in South Korea.
The 504MW project will form a part of the three-phase Gray Whale development with a combined installed capacity of 1.5GW. Once complete, Gray Whale is expected to be one of the largest floating offshore wind developments in the world.
Gray Whale 3 is being developed by BadaEnergy, a joint venture (JV) between Green Investment Group portfolio company Corio Generation, TotalEnergies and SK Ecoplant.
The construction of the first phase of the project is expected to begin in 2024, with operations may begin by the end of 2026.
Gray Whale 3 background and development details
In September 2020, TotalEnergies and Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (GIG) agreed to co-develop a portfolio of five large floating offshore wind projects in South Korea with a combined capacity of more than 2.3GW.
The project portfolio included three projects off Ulsan with a total capacity of 1.5GW and two off the southern coast of South Jeolla Province totalling 800MW.
In April 2020, GIG completed the installation of floating LiDAR to help in determining the area’s suitability for development.
The system was designed to collect wind resource data including wind speed and direction to help in assessing the project’s impact on the surrounding environment and ecosystem.
Various stakeholders, academic institutions and local communities were involved in the early development phase of the project, such as Korea Maritime University, Zen Limited and Vision Plus are associated with the design, stability testing, installation and operations of the floating LiDAR Bouy systems for offshore wind measurement.
In January 2021, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with GIG-Total and Ulsan Metropolitan City to set up an industry-academic cooperation programme for the development of floating offshore wind business.
In July 2021, GIG and TotalEnergies received an Electricity Business License (EBL) to establish the first phase of Gray Whale development. The approval was given by the Electricity Regulatory Commission of South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy.
In September 2022, SK Ecoplant teamed up with Corio Generation and TotalEnergies to develop the more than 2GW BadaEnergy offshore wind portfolio including the Gray Whale development.
The partners have also teamed up with Energy Infra Asset Management, a Korean renewable energy fund manager, to fund the Ulsan offshore wind project.
Key Gray Whale 3 Project details
The 1.5GW Gray Whale is planned to be developed in three phases. After completion, the overall project will produce enough power for 1.67 million households annually and offset carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 2.44 million metric tonnes.
The first phase of the development, with a capacity of 504MW, will be located in
