South Korea leads the offshore wind pack in the Asia-Pacific region, behind China, with big ambitions for its offshore wind build-out. The market has attracted a lot of interest from the industry, but multiple challenges remain, and several areas are in danger of becoming too crowded for their own good.

High market attractiveness and sizeable project pipeline

South Korea offers great opportunities for offshore wind, with ambitious offshore wind targets of 14.3 GW operating in its waters by 2030 - a massive step up from the 0.1 GW currently installed.

Favorable site conditions in the waters around the country have attracted interest from a large range of international developers, creating a sizeable project pipeline. A total of 27.6 GW have obtained an electricity business license (EBL), thereby securing exclusive development rights, which is almost double the targeted capacity.

Highly competitive open-door market approaching project saturation?

Some areas off South Korea have a high concentration of projects with EBLs located very closely, and the strong market interest is creating infrastructure capacity pressures in some regions, especially South Jeolla, where the rejection of new projects has been seen in 2024.

The over-subscription of the project pipeline creates multiple potential pitfalls for developers, who could end up spending resources on unfeasible or even unrealistic projects.

The Korean government needs to convert the high market interest into getting projects to operation, which has started with the yearly offtake auctions, rather than overcrowding the market with more early-stage projects. This includes streamlining regulation and permitting as well as enhancing the general market transparency.

Aegir Insights market intelligence on the South Korea's offshore wind market

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