South Korea Plans Offshore Wind Farm Tourism

South Korea’s Saemangeum Development and Investment Agency has announced plans for a 96.8MW offshore wind farm that will also include tourist attractions.

The farm will see the installation of 24 3.5MW and four 3.2MW turbines in the Saemangeum estuarine tidal flat on the coast of the Yellow Sea.

The farm is expected to be complete late in 2018 and will generate enough electricity to power around 62,000 homes.

However, the Agency also plans to develop an offshore wind farm tourism industry at the wind farm with the operation of a dedicated cruise ship for visiting the farm and an observation deck on top of a wind turbine.

The agency has signed a memorandum of understanding with Saemangeum Offshore Wind Power for the project, and other partners include Korea Rural Community Corporation, Kunsan National University and Jeonbuk Techno Park.

South Korea received its first electricity from offshore wind in September 2016 from the 30MW Tamra offshore wind farm off Jeju Island and located about one kilometer (0.6 miles) from shore. The government of Jeju-do plans to build five additional offshore wind farms by 2022.