Viable Offshore Wind Zones Triple in Size as Tech Advances Overcome Weak Winds

[Anchor]

Renewable energy is considered one of the key measures to address surging electricity demand. Unlike solar power, which has been expanding rapidly, the deployment of offshore wind power has been relatively sluggish. It has long been plagued by skepticism over whether it is even feasible in South Korea due to weak sea breezes. However, new analysis results show that there are ample winds across various parts of our waters.

Here is an exclusive report by senior climate and environment reporter Jang Se-man.

[Reporter]

A wind measurement device installed in the middle of the West Sea.

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

Considering electricity supply prices and profit margins, industry experts estimate that offshore wind projects become economically viable at an average annual wind speed of 7.5 meters per second.

[Choi Sung-jae / Director, Vision Plus Technology Research Institute: When combining offshore wind construction costs, operational expenses, and other development costs, it generally needs to reach around 7.5 meters per second for us to execute a project.]

What is the current wind intensity like?

A research team has wrapped up a three-year national R&D project investigating wind conditions in South Korea's coastal waters ahead of its official release, and we previewed the findings.

The areas meeting the 7.5 meters per second wind speed threshold accounted for 90 percent of the total in the South Sea, where wind paths are open. It was found to be 56 percent in the East Sea, and 34 percent even in the West Sea, which tends to be blocked by geographical features such as China.

This means the area of economically viable waters has expanded more than threefold compared to a survey conducted 10 years ago.

While the expansion of the surveyed zones itself was a major factor, advancements in wind turbine technology also played a significant role.

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

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

However, limitations remain.

The current purchase price paid by KEPCO when buying offshore wind electricity stands at the 350 won range per kilowatt-hour, which is more expensive than nuclear power, LNG, and even solar power.

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

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

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