A moving base on the sea, the Korean offshore wind power support vessel (SOV) is coming > News

The core of this collaboration lies in customized design and technological independence that take into account the special characteristics of our oceans. Despite the rapid expansion of the offshore wind power market, there is virtually no dedicated support vessel model in Korea that perfectly reflects the operating environment and weather conditions of our waters. To fill this gap in the market, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering seeks to build a domestic standard model that covers the entire process from design to construction by combining the practical know-how of Malcon, a marine consulting company. In particular, beyond simply building ships, the strategic will to secure technical reliability by obtaining Basic Certification (AiP) from Korea Register (KR) and upgrade to a standard model that will be competitive in overseas markets in the future stands out.

HD Korea Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering plans to mobilize all of its world-class eco-friendly shipbuilding technology for this project. We plan to apply advanced solutions that can safely stay at sea for a long period of time while minimizing carbon emissions, such as an electric propulsion system, energy storage system (ESS), and hybrid power technology. This will play a decisive role in solving the problem of travel time and costs increasing exponentially as offshore wind farms move further from land, and in maximizing work efficiency even in bad weather. This integration of cutting-edge technologies will raise the stability of offshore wind power operation to the next level, and will also serve as a solid foundation for Korea to take the lead in the global offshore wind power support vessel market.

This project also implies the creation of a win-win ecosystem where large corporations, small and medium-sized shipyards, and equipment companies grow together. In this localization process, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering plans to not simply show off its own technological prowess, but to establish a cooperation system with domestic small and medium-sized shipyards to share technology and gradually increase the localization rate of equipment. This is expected to have a trickle-down effect that goes beyond the growth of specific companies and increases the competitiveness of the entire domestic shipbuilding equipment industry. In particular, it can be read as a strategic step to improve the overall industrial ecosystem, focusing on the new growth engine of offshore wind power, and to dominate the eco-friendly standards required by the global market with Korean technology.

Looking at the global market figures, we can see how explosively the offshore wind power market will grow in the next 10 years. The world's cumulative installed capacity, which is around 80GW as of the end of 2024, is expected to expand into a huge market exceeding 440GW by 2034. In this trend, the domestic offshore wind power market is also just taking its infancy, but its potential is very large. Currently, domestic commercial operation performance remains at the initial stage, but if the vast demand from the global market meets domestic technological decisions, the offshore wind power support vessel field has the potential to become another 'fruitful item' in the Korean shipbuilding industry.