OMNI Features｜South Korea Rjects BlackRock' $7.5 bn Wind Farm Project / Amazon Signs Agreement with ENGIE to Procure 473 MW of Renewable Energy from Scotland Moray West Offshore Wind Farm / TotalEnergies and Air Liquide Launch Hydrogen Mobility Joint Venture with Plans to Build 100 Filling Stations in Europe

｜South Korea Rjects BlackRock' $7.5 bn Wind Farm Project
According to a South Korea government official on Tuesday, South Korea has slammed the brakes on BlackRock's offshore wind farm project worth around 10 trillion won ($7.5 billion), citing financing uncertainty and an insufficient transmission network for what was set to be the country's largest wind power complex.

BlackRock plans to build five wind farms off South Korea's southwestern coast in Sinan County, South Jeolla Province after it acquired a 100% stake in Korea Renewable Energy Development & Operation Holdings Co. (KREDO Holdings) via BlackRock Real Assets in 2021.

The Electricity Committee of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) recently rejected all 5 Sinan offshore wind farm construction plans proposed by KREDO Holdings. In the current transmission network, four out of the planned five wind farms may not be able to connect their power generators to the transmission grid after their construction is completed.

The power capacity by KREDO's 5 wind power complexes is expected to amount to 2 GW, and if approved, it will be the largest-ever offshore wind power project in South Korea.

The South Korean government announced a plan to invest about 8 trillion won by 2036 to build a West Coast submarine high-voltage direct current (HVDC) network to facilitate the transfer of carbon-free electricity from South Jeolla Province north to the Seoul Metropolitan Area.

｜Amazon Signs Agreement with ENGIE to Procure 473 MW of Renewable Energy from Scotland Moray West Offshore Wind Farm
Amazon has signed a corporate power purchase agreement (CPPA) with ENGIE, increasing its share of output from Ocean Winds' Moray West offshore wind farm in Scotland to a total of 473 MW when the site becomes operational later this year. This is enough energy to power the equivalent of more than 650,000 UK homes annually. Ocean Winds is a 50-50 EDP Renewables-ENGIE joint venture dedicated to offshore wind.

Located in the Moray Firth in the north east of Scotland, the 882MW wind farm is currently under construction and will generate power in 2024.

Amazon announced 39 new renewable energy projects across Europe last year, adding more than 1GW of clean energy capacity to grids in the region. Amazon's investment in solar and wind projects has led the company to become Europe's and the UK's largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy, a position it has held since 2021. In addition, between 2014 to 2022, renewable energy projects in the UK enabled by Amazon have generated an estimated £285 million in investment and helped to contribute more than £90 million to the UK's GDP.

Last year, ENGIE signed 19 ground-breaking deals, spanning five countries, covering over 1GW of clean energy capacity, bolstering ENGIE's CPPA portfolio to 7.3 GW.

｜TotalEnergies and Air Liquide Launch Hydrogen Mobility Joint Venture with Plans to Build 100 Filling Stations in Europe
TotalEnergies and Air Liquide launch hydrogen mobility joint venture "Teal Mobility" with plans to build 100 filling stations in Europe. Teal Mobility aims to build out 100 H2 filling stations over the next ten years to serve heavy-duty fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs).

The new company plans to have 20 stations up and running by the end of this year and already lists 15 incumbent Total hydrogen refuelling stations on its website.

While the market for hydrogen passenger cars has been on the downturn in Europe, with its largest market Germany seeing nearly 70% fewer registrations in 2023 than the year before, H2 is widely expected to play a major role in decarbonising trucks.

The EU passed its Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation last year, which mandates that publicly accessible gaseous H2 filling stations capable of serving both heavy-duty and light vehicles are set up in every "urban node" and every 200km along the core routes of the planned Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) by 2030. This is expected to result in hundreds of new stations being installed across Europe.

Reference:TheKoreaBizwire｜OceanWinds｜Hydrogeninsight