By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter
A wind power complex of 100-percent locally developed generators will be built for the first time in Korea.
Korea Southern Power (KSP), an umbrella firm of the state-run Korea Electric Power Corporation, announced Thursday it had a signing ceremony to establish a special purpose company (SPC) to be exclusively in charge of the project to set up the complex in Taebaek, Gangwon Province with its business partners.
In March, two generator manufacturers, Hyosung and Hyundai Heavy Industries, and their installer, Samhyop, signed a memorandum of understanding on the joint project, which is mainly aimed at the localization of technologies on wind power generation.
Nearly 200 wind power generators are currently in operation across the country, but only four of them were locally developed.
Starting with the Taebaek project of the 20-megawatt complex, shareholders of the SPC plan to expand homemade power generators to nearby places in the province. Ultimately, they look to set up 100 such windmills in the region, the KSP said.
With the project completed, South Korea will have wind plants for up to 90 megawatts of power generation on land, including Seongsan Wind Plant on Jeju Island. The first-phase construction of the plant was completed in March with a capacity of 12 megawatts.
Developers of localized generators at the KSP also set their sights on the mountainous province, expecting to expand their territory to marine regions.
They have already completed geological surveys on the seabed near Jeju Island and Busan and are now devising detailed plans for construction and installation of fan-driven generators.
"Next spring is likely to see the first venture of marine wind power plants," a KSP official said.
Also, a monitoring center for the status of windmills in Busan will open in autumn next year for the first time in Korea.
On the back of the "Low Carbon, Green Growth" agenda, efforts are building up on expansion of alternative and recycled energies. Last year, the Korean government set a goal of raising the rates of clean energy sources to 11 percent of the country's overall power generation by 2030.
Currently, recycled energy other than hydraulic power accounts for about 1 percent of Korea's electric generation.