Daewoo Reveals Wind Plans

South Korea-based shipyard Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering has a new strategy for its operations. The company aims to build ships for offshore wind turbine installation and operate wind projects themselves to generate 30 percent of company sales by 2020.

This is new territory for Daewoo. The vast majority of company sales came from shipbuilding and offshore equipment last year, though Daewoo did make wind turbines.

Daewoo acquired U.S.-based DeWind for about US$50 million and set up a wind turbine production center in Nova Scotia, Canada. It intends to open a Chinese turbine manufacturing facility before the end of the year.

Daewoo may also establish wind farms in Europe, the U.S. and Romania and projects its wind-power sales may reach $800 million in 2012, according to company officials.