The United Kingdom, which became the first in the world to legislate a carbon-neutral goal for 2050, is significantly increasing the scale of its carbon-free offshore wind power generation, and domestic corporations are quickly moving to secure business opportunities. Corporations are considering building or establishing production plants in the UK, and related contracts are expanding as local offshore wind projects grow.
According to foreign media and industry sources on the 11th, the UK Labour Party government, which launched in July, has stated it plans to quadruple the scale of offshore wind power generation by 2030 compared to the present level. As of last year, the UK's offshore wind power capacity was 14.7 gigawatts (GW), making it second in the world after China (36.8 GW). The UK government aims to secure an additional 7 GW of offshore wind power capacity each year.
The UK government plans to establish the Clean Energy Public Investment Corporation, Great British Energy (GB Energy), to implement its policies. The government will support GB Energy with £8.3 billion (about 15.19 trillion won) over the next five years, funded by a windfall tax from fossil fuel companies. Since 2022, the UK has imposed an additional 35% windfall tax on related corporations under the guise of an energy profits levy.
Korean corporations are also accelerating their business in the burgeoning UK offshore wind market. SeAH Steel Holdings established the offshore wind-related subsidiary SeAH Wind in the UK in 2021 and is building a monopile plant with an annual capacity of 240,000 tons (t) in the Teesside region of northeastern England at a cost of 400 billion won. A monopile is a cylindrical structure made by welding large steel plates, which is installed below the sea level to secure offshore wind turbines.
SeAH Wind is expected to complete the plant by the end of this year and begin commercial production in the first half of next year, having already secured three years' worth of orders. In 2021, SeAH Wind signed a contract to supply monopiles worth £364 million (about 660 billion won) for the Hornsea Project 3, a massive offshore wind power project led by Danish state-owned energy company Ørsted in the UK. At the end of last year, it also secured a contract to supply monopiles worth £900 million (about 1.64 trillion won) for the world’s largest offshore wind power project, Norfolk Vanguard.
The power cable industry is also expanding business opportunities in the UK. LS Cable & System signed a contract to supply high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cables worth 400 billion won for the Vanguard wind farm in the North Sea last year. This is the highest amount secured by a domestic cable company in Europe to date.
LS Cable & System's subsidiary LS Eco Energy is also working to secure a site for local production. LS Eco Energy signed a contract in May with Global Interconnection Group (GIG), an energy investment firm in the UK, to establish an HVDC joint plant and has secured priority negotiation rights for leasing a site from the Port of Tyne in northeastern England, currently negotiating leasing terms.
Power equipment manufacturers are also increasing local orders. HD Hyundai Electric signed a contract to supply nine high-voltage transformers worth 82.1 billion won with the UK power company National Grid in May this year. Hyosung Heavy Industries also signed a contract last month with Ørsted of Denmark, which is conducting a wind power project in the UK, for the supply of 400 kV high-voltage transformers. LS Electric is directly entering the energy storage system (ESS) power plant business in the UK, winning contracts for the EPC (engineering, procurement, construction) and engineering support projects for two plants.
The South Korean Embassy in the UK is actively helping domestic corporations enter the UK market. The embassy organized a ‘Korea-UK Offshore Wind Business Dialogue’ in July last year, introducing purchasing managers from global offshore wind developers and British government officials to domestic companies.
Kim Gi-hwan, commercial counselor at the South Korean Embassy in the UK, noted, 'The UK has adopted a strategy to achieve both carbon neutrality and economic growth through bold clean energy transition, which will be a significant opportunity for our energy corporations.' He added, 'Corporations will be able to establish a bridge for expansion throughout Europe based on the UK's largest renewable energy market, gaining opportunities to prove technological capabilities in developed markets.'