South Korea plans to designate 25 GW of preliminary areas for new offshore wind farms by 2031 , as part of a strategy to accelerate the deployment of this technology and reach 45 GW of cumulative capacity by 2040 .
The government estimates that these areas will allow for the development of approximately 20 GW of additional offshore power generation . The roadmap envisions reaching 3.1 GW installed by 2030, 25 GW by 2035, and 45 GW five years later .
But the leap in scale will be accompanied by a fundamental change in the way projects are developed: the State will now identify the sites , a task that until now has mainly fallen to the companies, which had to select the areas, talk to the communities and process the permits.
The first preliminary zone is planned before the end of 2026 , while parks originating entirely under the new scheme could begin to come online from 2033 .
To select the areas, the authorities will use an information network that brings together 301 sets of marine spatial data and regulations , with variables linked to wind resources, environmental conditions, fishing activity, maritime traffic and military operations.
The goal is to identify in advance the sites with the best conditions and reduce some of the uncertainty that developers face before committing investments.
Once the preliminary zones have been identified, the basic design and public-private consultation will begin. Subsequently, the process will move forward with the designation of development areas, the selection of companies, the approval of implementation plans, construction, and finally, commissioning.
The Government will also review the main regulatory requirements together with the ministries involved during the initial stages.
Once the companies are selected, up to 42 permit-related matters can be handled jointly under the Offshore Wind Energy Act , instead of each developer having to go through the different procedures individually.
The strategy thus aims to intervene before projects reach companies, seeking to reduce costs and development times and improve the predictability of the offshore portfolio.
The State takes control of project planning
The new model also changes how local acceptance will be sought. Territorial governments will lead public-private advisory bodies in which residents and fishing communities will participate from the earliest stages.
Among the issues to be addressed will be the distribution of benefits and measures for coexistence with fishing activity , one of the factors that the Government intends to incorporate before the projects reach advanced stages.
This represents a difference from the previous scheme, under which the developers themselves had to identify the land, initiate consultations with residents and subsequently proceed with the process.
The system also includes mechanisms for existing projects to be able to take advantage of the new framework of the Offshore Wind Energy Law , provided they meet the established requirements.
The roadmap was approved on September 2nd during the first meeting of the Offshore Wind Power Generation Committee , which also appointed 12 representatives from the private sector. Kim Beom-seok , a professor at Jeju National University, assumed the chairmanship of that committee.
“The measures to expand deployment and strengthen industrial competitiveness that have been analyzed by the Public-Private Committee for the Improvement of Competitiveness of Offshore Wind Energy have taken a further step through the Interministerial Committee for Offshore Wind Energy Generation,” Kim said.
With the new scheme, South Korea seeks to have state planning reduce some of the barriers that have conditioned offshore development and build an orderly portfolio before selecting operators.
The 25 GW announced for 2031 corresponds to preliminary areas and not necessarily to capacity that will be installed by that year . The goal is for these areas to form the territorial and regulatory base for adding approximately 20 GW and subsequently accelerating deployment to 25 GW operational by 2035 and 45 GW by 2040 .