Vestas will boost its presence in South Korea considerably, announces Chief Executive Officer Henrik Andersen who is attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. During an event Wednesday, he and South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yoel put their signatures on an agreement entailing ”investment potential of several hundred million USD”, Vestas confirms in a LinkedIn post.

The announcement follows a number of reports on the deal by several South Korean news outlets, including Yonhap. These reports made mention of Vestas’ plans to invest USD 300m in new production facilities and move its regional Asia-Pacific headquarters to South Korea.

However, Vestas doesn’t quantify the investment, instead noting that the scope ”is dependent on a growing market for offshore wind.”

South Korea has set a target of reaching 12GW of offshore wind power by 2030, currently having no installed capacity. The ambitions have attracted a number of major developers to the nation, including Shell, which has teamed up with Swedish manufacturer of floating platforms Hexicon to develop 1.3GW project MunmuBaram. For this, Vestas was selected as the preferred supplier back in November.

A week before, Henrik Andersen had paid a visit to Seoul in order to discuss the potential for setting up production facility with Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Lee Chang-yang. In spring 2022, a joint venture involving potential manufacturing of blades, towers and assembly was set up with South Korean CS Wind, which was former Vestas Towers Chief Executive Knud Bjarne Hansen as co-CEO.

Vestas isn’t the sole Danish entity having talks with top politicians in South Korea. In fall 2021, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen held a virtual meeting with then-President Moon Jae-in, one which his successor highlights in connection with the Vestas deal.

”In a meeting with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in June of last year, we decided to expand mutual investments in the offshore wind power sector, and I am delighted to see tangible results,” says President Yoon Suk-Yoel in a statement on the deal cited by South Korean media Hankyoreh.

”We have been able to create a stepping stone we can lean on and discover new export engines.”

The new deal comes at a delicate time, at least in European context, given that the EU is taking steps to prevent that the wind industry follows the same path as the solar industry and departs Europe. For South Korea, the opposite is the case as there has been some uncertainty regarding Yoon’s commitment to the renewable energy push.

During last year’s campaign, he expressed skepticism regarding the plans to set up offshore wind installations off Ulsan. Instead, the leader of the conservative PPP party advocated additional nuclear power instead. In the latest energy plan, South Korea has set a target to cut the share of renewables from 30.2% to 21.5% in 2030.