South Korea has gone on to award 689 MW of offshore wind projects in one of the competitive tenders for fixed-bottom offshore wind that was organized in the first half of 2025, confirmed the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) and the Korea Energy Agency (KEA) on September 1, 2025.
It is well to be noted that earlier this year, KEA went ahead and announced that the tender offering an offshore wind capacity totalling 1.25 GW and 1 GW pertaining to solar projects would be held in the first half of 2025, after MOTIE announced that the competitive bidding for offshore wind would be taking place two times per year.
The now-completed round happened to be split into two tracks: a public-led category with almost 500 MW available and a general category pertaining to the private-sector projects offering around 750 MW.
Apparently, there were four developers who were selected in the public-led track, having a combined capacity of 689 MW of offshore wind projects, while there were no projects that were chosen from the general group, as per the KEA.
Notably, the names of the winning projects along with the developers are not readily available on the government websites; however, the South Korean media has reported that a 400 MW Southwest Offshore Wind Power Demonstration Complex, which has been developed by Korea Offshore Wind Power from KEPCO; a 100 MW Handong-Pyeongdae Offshore Wind Power project that has been developed by a consortium led by Dongseo Power; the Dadaepo Offshore Wind Power project of 99 MW, which is led by Southern Power; and the Aphae Offshore Wind Power project totalling 80 MW, developed by a Korea Electric Power Technology-led consortium, have gone on to win in the group which is dedicated to the public bidders.
Interestingly, the projects within the general bidding group, which were not selected by way of the tender, happen to include the Haesong 3 Offshore Wind Power project, which is developed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), and also the Hanbit Offshore Wind Power project, which is developed by Myungun Industrial Development.
It is worth noting that all of the selected projects except for the Southwest Offshore Wind Power Demonstration Complex happen to plan to make use of 10 MW turbines of Doosan Enerbility, therefore marking the very first rollout of the offshore wind turbines at a commercial scale of any Korean manufacturer, as per BusinessKorea.
South Korea looks forward to installing almost 14 GW of offshore wind capacity by the end of this decade as part of its wider clean energy shift.
As per MOTIE, there are more tenders that are planned for the second half of 2025 and beyond. The ministry went on to note that for any further tenders, it will also take into consideration aspects like future bidding demand.
The announcement, which is planned for the second half of 2025, is going to be promoted by way of improvements to the competitive bidding system, hence reflecting feedback coming from the stakeholders, which includes the likes of wind farm operators by way of meetings and competitive bidding briefings, confirmed the ministry.
