Nakwol Offshore Wind completes installation of all 64 monopile substructures in 13 months. [Provided by Nakwol Offshore Wind]
Nakwol Offshore Wind completes installation of all 64 monopile substructures in 13 months. [Provided by Nakwol Offshore Wind]

Nakwol Offshore Wind announced Friday that it has completed 100 percent of the monopile substructure installations for its offshore wind project — all 64 units — in just 13 months.

The feat is the fastest monopile installation on record in South Korea, marking what the company called a new milestone for the country's offshore wind industry.

Samhae E&C, the marine construction contractor for the project, worked alongside domestic partners including Toseong Construction and Hansan Maritime to complete all 64 monopile installations from May 5 last year through Tuesday — a span of roughly 13 months.

Monopiles are the substructures, also referred to as jackets, that anchor offshore wind turbines to the seabed. They are considered the most critical and technically demanding component of offshore wind construction, as weather and wave conditions can significantly disrupt the process and the entire project schedule depends on their timely completion.

The monopiles were manufactured and supplied by GS Entec at its Ulsan factory. Each unit is a massive steel structure measuring 7.5 meters in diameter, roughly 70 meters tall — equivalent to a 24-story apartment building — and weighing approximately 880 metric tons. The Nakwol project was the first offshore wind contract for which GS Entec produced and supplied monopiles from its Ulsan factory, allowing the company to build experience and a track record. On that basis, GS Entec is now pursuing monopile supply contracts for other offshore wind projects in South Korea and abroad, including in Japan.

Nakwol Offshore Wind said it received all 64 high-quality monopiles from GS Entec on schedule. GS Entec had introduced advanced manufacturing technology from Europe's Sif Group for their production. Thorough geological surveys and strong construction capabilities allowed Samhae E&C and its partners to complete every installation exactly as designed, without a single failure.

Nakwol Offshore Wind used the survey vessel Samhae No. 1 — built by Bada Engineering, an affiliate of Myeongun Industrial Development — to conduct more than 120 geological boreholes. The data underpinned the substructure design, enabling the installation process to proceed precisely according to plan.

"Without the Nakwol Offshore Wind project, which involves installing 64 turbines at a total capacity of 364.8 megawatts, it would not have been easy to build a domestic supply chain ecosystem covering monopile production, transportation, vessel operations and installation, and the training and accumulation of experience among skilled workers," a Nakwol Offshore Wind official said.

The official added, "More projects need to break ground going forward so that the domestic supply chain can be expanded and offshore wind developers can move quickly without worrying about infrastructure such as installation vessels."


oskymoon@heraldcorp.com