Korea Electric Power Corp. has established the country’s first meteorological tower at sea as part of its offshore wind power generation.

The 115-meter Herald of Meteorological and Oceanographic Special Unit-1 was built on the South Sea near the Busan-Yeonggwang area, the company said Wednesday.

Its primary purpose is to obtain meteorological and oceanographic data for an offshore wind farm planned there by 2019, KEPCO said.

Korea is planning to establish a 2500 megawatt-offshore wind farm in the 50 square-kilometer area. The government will inject more than 9.2 trillion won ($7.7 billion) into the project, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said earlier.

The tower will greatly increase the efficiency of the wind farm by offering data enabling the country to select the best-suited wind power generators, KEPCO officials said.

Wind farms in the country so far have mostly relied on satellite data collected from built-up regions, which made it harder for them to operate, they added.

“The completion of the facility is meaningful in that it is the first of the kind in the country. It will be able to lead the ‘global top 3 wind power generation nation’ project which the government is actively pushing,” a KEPCO official said.

Korea is still at the beginning stage regarding wind power generation but more towers are expected to be built in the nation’s seas in the coming years, he added.

By Koh Young-aah (youngaah@heraldcorp.com)