S.Korea's SK Ecoplant, POSCO develop K-floating body with domestic tech

South Korea's SK Ecoplant Co. and POSCO on Wednesday said they secured basic design certification from the Norwegian classification body DNV for "K-floating body," a floating body model for offshore wind power developed purely with domestic technology.

DNV is considered the world's most authoritative certification body for floating structures.

Unlike offshore wind power structures fixed to the sea surface, those of the floating variety generate electricity by floating wind turbines on the water like buoys. Floating bodies that safely float the turbines on the sea play a key role.

The K-floating body is a 10 megawatt-class semi-submersible floating model.

Weather data has found that the model can withstand a typhoon of about 40 meters per second that occurs once every 50 years. It is also recognized for maintaining structural and functional stability even in extreme sea environments such as currents of 2 meters per second and waves 10 meters high.

The model's stability is considered to be equal to technology readiness level 5, or the same as that of advanced companies abroad such as those in Europe that possess self-developed floating bodies.

Another advantage of the K-floating body is no payment of licensing fees or royalties since it was made with 100% domestic technology.

In 2021, SK Ecoplant and POSCO signed a business agreement on development of floating models for offshore wind power and have since promoted joint research in the field.

Write to Seo-Woo Jang at suwu@hankyung.com