Wind resource assessment around Korean Peninsula for feasibility study on 100 MW class offshore wind farm

In recent years, many countries have been endeavoring to exploit the offshore wind energy in terms of overcoming the limitations of on-land wind energy. Considering that mountains cover 70 percent of the Korean Peninsula and arable plains for wind energy are negligibly small. Korean government aggressively drives the offshore wind development of the Korean Peninsula. In this context, KEPCO-RI (Korea Electric Power Corporation-Research Institute) has been performing a feasibility study for construction of the first offshore wind farm in Korea, including wind resource assessments around the Korean Peninsula. This paper provides a summary of the offshore wind resources of the Korean Peninsula, by analyzing marine buoy datasets measured at 5 positions over the period of 12 years, the QuikSCAT satellite data measured over 9 years, and a numerical wind map based on meteorological data measured for 4 years. Based on these datasets, wind resources are assessed, and economical efficiency is evaluated by means of the expected capacity factor. The analyzing results will be utilized to decide location of the first offshore wind farm in Korea. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.