Photograph)  Koo Bon-kyu, CEO of LS Cable & System, Bill Main, CEO of Balmoral Comtec, and Kim Byung-ok, CEO of LS Marine Solution (from left), attend the signing ceremony for the MOU for cooperation on a floating offshore wind power project between LS Cable & System, LS Marine Solution, and Balmoral Comtec held at the LS Cable & System Seoul Office in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, on the 13th.


■ Companies plan to dominate offshore wind power market by strengthening global cooperation
■ Bandibuli Project, world’s largest floating offshore wind farm, in full swing


LS Cable & System and LS Marine Solutions announced on the 13th that they had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for collaboration on a floating offshore wind power project with British marine engineering company Balmoral Comtec.

Balmoral Comtec is an energy company with the world's best technology in building cable protection systems, buoyancy solutions, and subsea infrastructure for the offshore wind power and marine energy industries.

LS Cable & System is the first in Korea to develop a dynamic cable for floating offshore wind power that operates stably even in harsh marine environments. Under this agreement, the company plans to work with Balmoral Comtec to build a safe floating offshore wind power cable operation system optimized for marine environments.

In addition, LS Marine Solutions will support the successful implementation of the project by maximizing efficiency in the installation and operation of floating offshore wind power cables and by providing stable maintenance.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy introduced floating offshore wind power for the first time in the 2024 Competitive Bidding for Fixed Price Contracts for Wind and Solar Power Facilities, and as a result, Equinor’s Bandibuli Project was awarded the bid. LS Cable & System signed a business agreement with Equinor and is working to enter the market early.

Floating offshore wind power generates electricity by floating structures on the sea, and it allows structures to be installed further offshore than with seabed fixed systems. The World Wind Energy Association predicts that this market will grow rapidly from 35 GW in 2020 to 270 GW in 2030.

“The proportion of floating offshore wind power is still at around 1%, but it will grow rapidly in the future,” said an official from LS Cable & System. “We will secure core technologies through the Bandibuli Project and lead the market by promoting continuous technology development and global cooperation.”