Korean Company Building Floating Wind Construction Vessel

Kongsberg Maritime said on 26 January that the company would support a floating wind construction (FWCV) vessel by HANA Shipping “with a complete deck machinery package designed for demanding offshore operations”.

The new 127-metre vessel is being built for the Ulsan floating wind projects in South Korea and is scheduled for delivery in July 2027.

The FWCV will handle mooring, cable laying and complex installation tasks 70 kilometres off the Korean coast, according to Kongsberg Maritime.

Kongsberg’s scope includes the supply of a winch package featuring a 500-tonne main towing/AHT winch system with three drums, complemented by secondary winches for rope installation, a rope tensioner system, tugger winches, an active heave-compensated working winch, and a complete Towcon X8 control system. In addition to winches, Kongsberg’s contract introduces two innovative products developed specifically for large anchor handling/mooring installation vessels: the next-generation Shark Jaw system and new AH100 rail cranes, the company says.

In South Korea, which last year awarded 689 MW of offshore wind projects in the competitive tender for fixed-bottom offshore wind, there are several proposed floating wind projects off the coast of Ulsan, which aims to develop a 9 GW floating offshore wind complex by 2030.