Offshore wind holds vast potential as a sustainable energy source for rapidly growing countries, such as South Korea with its substantial coastal areas.
EXPO 2012 provides an opportunity to build partnerships for the future and to share knowledge, experience and expertise across borders. A solid foundation for Danish-Korean collaboration on wind energy has already been laid through Vestas’ long history and presence in South Korea and the strong government commitment to ensuring green growth in both Denmark and Korea.
“We see a lot of similarities between our two countries. Both countries have clearly acknowledged that wind energy is a reliable and sustainable energy solution for the future,” says Vestas CEO Ditlev Engel. “In Denmark, the government has set a goal of achieving 50 per cent of our electricity consumption from wind energy by 2020, and Korea is leading the way by systematically implementing policies required to spur Green Growth. With the right policy frameworks in place, business will make the investments, take the risks, and create the new business opportunities that the green economic transformation promises.”
Vestas has been the leading partner for wind energy in South Korea for many years. We have installed more than 200 onshore wind power turbines in the country since 1998, and almost 70 per cent of installed wind power plants are currently using Vestas wind turbines.
“Wind energy is a sustainable way forward for powering cities of the future with clean and safe energy,” says Vestas Asia Pacific President Sean Sutton. “With our many years of experience in turning the wind into energy on land and on sea, Vestas will strive to partner with South Korea to reach their goal of building sustainable cities and ensuring future generations have a reliable source of energy.”
Participating in EXPO 2012 will help Vestas forge even closer ties with South Korea’s wind energy sector. In doing so, Vestas aim to drive partnerships, innovation and R&D development, create green jobs, support the South Korean government’s focus on renewable energy and finally help South Korea tap into the huge potential of offshore wind energy.
Vestas’ offshore capabilities
Vestas is a pioneer within offshore wind energy. So far, we have installed 580 offshore turbines, equalling 43 per cent of all such turbines in the world. In 2010 alone, we installed a total of 555 MW at the Robin Rigg, Thanet and Bligh Bank offshore wind farms, increasing our installed capacity to more than 1,400 MW.
Vestas has gained extensive experience and knowledge over the years, which we use continuously in our research and development activities. Vestas works intensively to ensure that lessons learned are combined with new and innovative solutions to eventually provide the strongest possible business case certainty for our customers.