London, UK – Wood Thilsted is pleased to announce the establishment of its first presence in the South Korean offshore wind market with the relocation of two of its specialist engineers to support the development of about 10 potential fixed and floating offshore windfarms. Jack Cran and Luke Graydon will be co-located with Copenhagen Offshore Partners (COP) in Korea from April 2023. Jack will bring his skills in Geotechnical Engineering while Luke will be supporting on Floating Foundation Engineering. Both will be supported by our teams in Taiwan and Europe to ensure that COP can access WT’s full range of expertise.
This move comes at a very exciting time for the South Korean offshore wind market with significant partnership announcements in 2023 from installers, fabricators, and developers.
The high level of activity in the market is indicative of the scale of opportunity for South Korea due to its large amount of coastline and favourable wind conditions. The South Korean government recognises this and as part of its Green New Deal, is aiming to generate over 20% of the country’s power with renewables by 2030. This is supported by a target of 12GW from offshore wind capacity which is around a hundredfold increase from the 125MW of offshore wind generating capacity the country has today. This combination of factors puts South Korea is a position to become a future global player in offshore wind power generation.
Hannah Abend, Wood Thilsted Director of Growth said:
‘Korea has great ambitions in the offshore wind sector and Wood Thilsted is looking to make early hires to support the development of South Korean capabilities in offshore wind engineering. The first step to this approach is locating key WT team members in South Korea to work with our partners on South Korea’s exciting offshore wind projects, while also identifying and hiring future talent.’
Johan Hodel Meincke, Wood Thilsted regional lead for APAC said:
‘Having established exceptionally strong partnerships in Taiwan that have enabled us to harness local talent and supply chains in ways other consultancies cannot, WT is looking to build up a similar network in South Korea that benefits local communities and the economy.’
