Korean Wind Power Sees Declines in Companies, Employment, and Sales... Domestic Turbine Market Share Drops from 70% to 49%

Among 22 Offshore Wind Power Sites with Development Permits, Construction Start Dates Undecided for 10 Locations

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The number of domestic wind power companies, employment, and sales have all decreased, and the market share of domestically produced turbines has also plummeted. There is an urgent need to establish measures to strengthen the competitiveness of the domestic wind power industry.

According to data submitted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to Kim Kyung-man, a member of the National Assembly's Industry, Trade, Energy, Small and Medium Enterprises Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, the number of domestic wind power companies decreased from 28 in 2016 to 22 in 2018.

Employment also dropped by 138, from 1,718 in 2016 to 1,580 in 2018. Domestic sales decreased from 756 billion KRW in 2016 to 695 billion KRW in 2018, and all indicators except sales from overseas factories worsened.

Furthermore, the domestic market share of turbines for wind power facilities subject to the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) fell from 70.4% in 2016 to 49.2% in the first half of this year. In 2018, it dropped as low as 39.1%.

Turbine systems capable of large-scale and offshore deployment showed technological and price competitiveness inferior to advanced countries. The same applies to key components such as blades, generators, and converters.

Except for the price competitiveness of towers, which are labor-intensive components, the domestic wind power industry lagged behind global competitiveness in all aspects.

It was also found that many power plants with generation project permits have unclear construction schedules. There are a total of 22 offshore wind power plants with a capacity of 3MW or more that have obtained permits and are under development (total capacity = 3.3GW), but 10 of these sites have uncertain construction start dates.

For example, the Amhae Wind Power Plant received its generation project permit in July 2015, but construction is only scheduled to begin in March next year, six years later. Representative Kim said that resolving local community acceptance issues during the permit process appears to be an urgent task.

Kim stated, "As the wind power industry is rapidly growing worldwide and is expected to account for a large share of renewable energy in the future, it is urgent to establish measures to strengthen the competitiveness of the domestic wind power industry. In particular, it is necessary to identify the difficulties faced by domestic small and medium-sized parts companies and provide active support for parts localization."

He emphasized, "To achieve the Renewable Energy 3020 supply target, expanding large-scale projects is essential, so effective measures to resolve local community acceptance issues must also be implemented."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.