Report Highlights

The Macro-to-Market Context

South Korea's offshore wind market is in a structural transition from aspiration to execution. The country has the world's second-longest shoreline relative to land area, sustained average wind speeds of 7–9 m/s across the Yellow Sea and South Sea corridors, and a national energy security imperative to reduce its 93% fossil fuel import dependence — conditions that make offshore wind a strategically necessary investment, not a discretionary clean energy choice. The 2024 Offshore Wind Special Act is the regulatory breakthrough that transforms this potential into near-term capital deployment: it creates a single permitting window replacing the previous 13-agency approval process that added 3–5 years to project timelines, and it establishes a Feed-in Tariff Plus (FIT+) system guaranteeing 20-year offtake contracts at commercially viable strike prices for projects commissioned through 2029.

The macroeconomic context adds a second dimension: South Korea's heavy industry — Hyundai, Samsung, POSCO, Doosan — has identified offshore wind supply chain participation as a strategic priority for the post-shipbuilding revenue cycle. The government's support is not purely energy policy; it is an industrial policy to deploy South Korea's world-class heavy manufacturing base in offshore wind fabrication to capture domestic and export market value chains simultaneously. This industrial policy alignment means the offshore wind buildout has political support that transcends energy ministry advocacy.

Industry Snapshot

The South Korea Offshore Wind Energy Market was valued at approximately USD 3.2 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach approximately USD 18.6 billion by 2034, growing at a CAGR of 19.2%–22.8%. South Korea's position in this market reflects its combination of excellent offshore wind resources, a world-class heavy manufacturing industrial base capable of producing turbine components, monopile foundations, and offshore installation vessels at scale, and a regulatory environment that has fundamentally improved with the 2024 Offshore Wind Special Act. The competitive landscape is evolving rapidly: domestic conglomerates are entering the supply chain, and international developers (Ørsted, Equinor, Macquarie) are competing for project development rights alongside KEPCO and domestic energy companies.

The structural context most relevant to the forecast period is the pipeline of projects under development. South Korea has approximately 47GW of offshore wind projects in various stages of development and permitting — a pipeline that is 2.5 times the government's 19.3GW target, creating a competitive development landscape with significant near-term capital deployment as the first wave of FIT+-eligible projects reaches financial close.

Market Structure and Competitive Dynamics

KEPCO remains the primary grid offtaker and retains a project development role, but the offshore wind development market has opened to international developers with greater capital and technology depth. Ørsted (Korea) — which holds the largest pipeline of South Korean development rights outside the public sector — and Macquarie's Green Investment Group are the leading international developers. Doosan Enerbility is positioning its 8MW offshore turbine platform as the domestic technology champion, competing against Siemens Gamesa and Vestas in a market where procurement localisation requirements under the Offshore Wind Special Act create a structural preference for domestic or domestically-manufactured components.

CS Wind — the world's largest wind tower manufacturer by capacity — is a strategically critical supply chain enabler: its Korean manufacturing base supplies both domestic project developers and is a global export platform. POSCO's high-strength steel for monopile foundations and Hyundai Heavy Industries' offshore installation vessel fleet are the other key industrial assets that position South Korea's supply chain for both domestic and global offshore wind market participation.

Regional and Sub-Market Dynamics Within South Korea

The Yellow Sea (West Sea) is South Korea's primary offshore wind development zone — characterised by shallow water depths (10–40m), moderate wave conditions, and proximity to the Honam (Jeolla) region's industrial port infrastructure. The Sinan Offshore Wind Complex (8.2GW), anchored in South Jeolla Province, is the largest single offshore wind project in South Korea's pipeline and the first to reach advanced permitting stage under the new single-window process. The South Sea corridor offers higher wind speeds but more challenging wave conditions, favouring semi-submersible floating offshore wind development in the 2030+ timeframe.

The Ulsan floating offshore wind cluster is the most strategically significant emerging sub-market: supported by MOTIE's Ulsan Floating Offshore Wind Roadmap (targeting 6GW floating offshore wind by 2030), it is designed to leverage Hyundai Heavy Industries and Samsung Heavy Industries' floating platform engineering capabilities — positioning South Korea as a global floating offshore wind technology hub in parallel with the near-term fixed-bottom buildout.

Market at a Glance

Leading Market Participants in South Korea

• Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO)
• Doosan Enerbility (turbine manufacturing)
• CS Wind (tower manufacturing)
• Ørsted Korea (project development)
• Macquarie Green Investment Group Korea
• POSCO (steel and foundation supply)
• Hyundai Electric & Energy Systems
• Samsung C&T (EPC and project development)
• Equinor Korea
• Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS — floating offshore wind)