Weak Winds Limit Offshore Wind? Economically Viable Waters Triple in Size

[Anchor]

Renewable energy is being highlighted as one of the solutions to meet steadily rising electricity demand. While solar power is expanding rapidly, the deployment of offshore wind power has been relatively slow. The stigma has long persisted that offshore wind might not be feasible in South Korea due to weak marine winds. However, a new analysis has emerged showing that there are waters with ample wind in various locations.

This is an exclusive report by Climate and Environment Specialist Reporter Jang Se-man.

[Reporter]

A wind measurement device is planted in the middle of the West Sea.

It measures marine winds across all four seasons to determine the feasibility of wind power generation.

When the industry factors in electricity supply prices and returns on investment, the wind speed required for domestic offshore wind projects to be economically viable is an annual average of 7.5 meters per second.

[Choi Sung-jae / Director, Vision Plus Technology Research Institute: When you add up construction costs, operating costs, and other development costs for offshore wind, it typically needs to be around 7.5 meters per second for us to carry out a project.]

What is the current wind speed like?

Ahead of the release of results from a national R&D project in which domestic researchers investigated wind conditions off our coast over the past three years, we took an advance look at the findings.

The areas satisfying the 7.5 meters per second wind speed accounted for 90% of the total area in the South Sea, where wind paths are open, 56% in the East Sea, and 34% in the West Sea, where winds are obstructed by geographical features such as China.

This means the area of economically viable waters has increased by more than three times compared to a study conducted 10 years ago.

While the expansion of the survey areas themselves was a major reason, advances in wind turbine technology also played a significant role.

As turbines have become larger, the height of wind generators has more than doubled, because wind characteristics dictate that wind speeds increase at higher altitudes.

[Kim Jin-young / Researcher, Korea Institute of Energy Research: It is true that wind speeds are relatively weak compared to Europe, but it is clear that our industrial technology has already secured the capability to find and utilize resources that can overcome this.]

However, there are also limitations.

Currently, the price paid when selling offshore wind electricity to KEPCO is in the 350 won range per kilowatt, which is more expensive than nuclear power, LNG, and even solar power.

Taking into account KEPCO's profit and loss and the scale of offshore wind subsidies, the government's policy is to lower the purchasing unit price to the 250 won range by 2030.

Experts advise that while the economic viability of offshore wind should be enhanced by lowering turbine introduction costs, efforts to advance technology must also proceed in parallel to boost the competitiveness of the domestic wind industry.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
(Reported by Seol Chi-hwan | Video by Kim Jun-hee | Support for Reporting by Semyung University Graduate School of Journalism)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.