Project sponsors
Following Taiwan, the Asian frontrunner in developing an ambitious offshore wind plan, the South Korean government has laid down a comprehensive strategy to attract many international and local developers and to leverage on the strong South Korean industrial base and know-how.
The South Korean government aims to increase the share of renewables in the energy mix from 7% currently to 26% by 2034, with offshore wind targeted to contribute 12GW by 2030. To do so, among other regulatory measures, the government has imposed mandatory obligations on large-scale power generators to source a minimum percentage of their generation through renewable energy certificates. This minimum percentage has been raised from 10% to 25% by 2026, demonstrating strong support for the national renewables agenda. In addition, Shinan County (South Jeolla Province), where the Jeonnam project is located, is one of the six regions identified by the government for the promotion of offshore wind.
These solid regulatory foundations set the scene for SK E&S Company Ltd (SK E&S) with 51% and CI III, a fund managed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) with 49% to proceed with their 99MW Jeonnam project, located 10km off the shores and with a water depth of 10m– 20m. SK E&S is a leading energy company headquartered in Seoul, South Korea and is active in 37 overseas market such as the US, Australia, and Indonesia. It was founded in 1999 as a holding company for the city gas business and has since expanded into a complete LNG value chain player.
From the late 2010s, SK E&S started to expand its business portfolio to include renewable energy businesses to lead the paradigm shift towards low-carbon, eco-friendly energy. SK E&S is 90% owned by SK Group, a South Korean conglomerate with businesses in telecommunications, chemicals, energy, and construction. SK E&S is a key player in the South Korean renewables market. As of September 2022, the company had successfully brought to operation 293MW of solar and onshore wind energy in South Korea. SK E&S is now developing, constructing and operating 3.8GW of renewable energy projects in both the domestic market and overseas, and plans to expand its renewable energy projects to 7GW by 2025.
CIP is a fund management company founded by senior members of the energy industry in 2012. The senior partners have worked closely together as a team for more than 15 years. CIP’s current investments include a wide range of renewable energy infrastructure assets including offshore wind, onshore wind, offshore power transmission, biomass, waste to energy and solar PV investments.
CIP employs more than 400 dedicated professionals with practical commercial, industrial and project execution experience in the energy sector, able to draw on experience gained from more than 50 large-scale energy infrastructure projects. It has €25bn funds under management across 11 funds. Investors include more than 100 institutional investors, including pension funds, insurance companies, family offices, and asset/fund managers. CIP has successfully brought 2.8GW of offshore wind projects to final investment decision (FID) in the UK, Germany, the US, Taiwan and South Korea. It has a development pipeline of 50GW offshore wind projects globally at various stages of development, comprising both fixed-bottom and floating foundation sites.