South Korea to Construct 2.5 GW Offshore Wind Farm

Wind turbines are an excellent renewable energy source.  However, people don't like looking at them and apparently the sound of the turbines spinning is really loud and annoying.  Off shore wind farms are the the answer to those two problems, and more wind can actually be collected over water as opposed to on land anyways.  They just are a little trickier to build and maintain, but the Koreans are working on that technology right now...

Source:

South Korea plans to build a 2.5 GW wind farm off the western coast of the Korean peninsula over the next ten years.

The Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) said a total of 9.3trn won ($8.3bn) will need to be invested by 2019 to erect 500, 5 MW wind turbines in the West Sea off the Jeolla provinces. .

"Basically, the scheme is composed of three phases. By 2013, we will have raised 20 5-megawatt turbines and add 180 by 2016 and 300 more by 2019," MKE director general Kang Nam-hoon said.

On the back of the mega-sized project, we strive to preempt the ever-growing global green market and become one of the three powerhouses in the offshore wind power generation.’’

Kang projected that the wind complex will serve as an example when Asia’s fourth-largest economy attempts to export its technologies for which global demand is likely to explode in the not-so-distant future.

"Many domestic companies are working on large-sized wind turbines. Offshore wind power generation has a shot at becoming the country’s future cash cow when it becomes mainstream technology," Kang said.

Currently, such flagship companies as Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries, Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, and Hyosung are developing large wind turbines.

However, the project is not a certainty because the MKE hopes that the private sector including the aforementioned companies will provide almost all of the 9.2 trn won investment. The MKE is poised to fund a mere 29bn won, or 0.3 per cent of the overall plan, in the research and development of specific technologies.

The ministry said that the investments will continue because offshore wind power generation has outstanding business outlook despite critics claims that the project may fall through.

South Korea already is home to the world's largest tidal energy plant in Wando.  I can see their advancments in alternative energy paying off big in the coming decades as countries around the world continue to push to find ways of producing energy other than burning fossil fuels.

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