Mokpo City Prepares for the Future by Fostering the Offshore Wind Power Industry

Focusing Efforts on Building the Nation's Best Offshore Wind Support Infrastructure

Boosting Industry Vitality through Promotion of 'Opportunity Development Special Zone' Designation

Mokpo City, Jeollanam-do (Mayor Park Hong-ryul) is striving to foster the offshore wind power industry to leap forward as a global new maritime city.

On the 12th, the city announced that it is focusing administrative efforts on building top-tier offshore wind power support infrastructure centered around the new port to support the successful promotion of large-scale offshore wind power complexes and attract global companies.

Carbon neutrality and energy transition to overcome the climate crisis have already become global issues, and the renewable energy industry centered on offshore wind power is continuously expanding.

View of Mokpo New Port
[Photo by Mokpo City]

Although the global offshore wind power industry has somewhat contracted recently due to high interest rates, inflation, and supply chain crises, international organizations have diagnosed this as a short-term growing pain. With investment decisions by global energy companies including those from the UK and Denmark, as well as the announcement of various regulatory and condition improvement policies, the offshore wind power industry, expected to sustain high growth, is gaining momentum.

While offshore wind power projects aligned with global paradigms and national policies are actively starting nationwide, the core infrastructure supporting them?port facilities?is critically insufficient.

To build large-scale offshore wind power complexes, specialized support ports and hinterlands capable of storage, transportation, and assembly of ultra-large heavy components (nacelles, towers, blades, etc.) are essential.

Mokpo New Port already possesses steel piers that meet these conditions, and a nearby hinterland (approximately 150,000 pyeong) has been developed, providing optimal conditions for attracting related companies and revitalizing the industry.

Such dedicated piers and support infrastructure are key to the success of offshore wind power complex development, but nationwide, the shortage of support ports is severe. Additionally, the steel cargo volume at Mokpo Port is saturated relative to its handling capacity, making it somewhat difficult to replace existing cargo volumes.

Accordingly, Mokpo City is dedicating efforts to propose the construction of an additional offshore wind power dedicated steel pier (50,000-ton class) with one berth and a second-phase hinterland (238,000㎡) at the new port.

They plan to secure policy feasibility by reflecting this in the ‘2nd Basic Plan for New Port Construction’ and the ‘4th National Port Basic Plan,’ and focus capabilities on ensuring timely infrastructure construction through preliminary feasibility studies and securing national funding.

Through this, the city aims to successfully attract companies and create an offshore wind power industry ecosystem centered on Mokpo New Port.

A bird's-eye view of the offshore wind power platform center, which began construction on the 8th [Photo provided by Mokpo City]

Furthermore, to promote private investment in large-scale offshore wind power complexes and establish a sustainable industrial support system, the city is advancing the ‘Offshore Wind Power Convergence Industrialization Platform Construction’ project.

This project, with a total budget of 35.7 billion KRW funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, will serve as a control tower comprehensively managing and supporting all processes of offshore wind power complex creation and operation through △ development of offshore wind power maintenance and logistics management software △ construction of port logistics infrastructure △ establishment of an integrated control system for power complexes.

The core facility, the ‘Platform Center’ (approximately 3,300㎡ total floor area, 4 stories), broke ground on the 8th.

Possessing such optimal infrastructure, Mokpo City is also preparing to apply for designation as a ‘Opportunity Development Zone,’ one of the current government’s key economic policies.

The Opportunity Development Zone is a regional balanced development policy promoted by the Presidential Commission on Local Autonomy, aiming to attract large-scale corporate investments to local areas by providing a package of tax and financial support, regulatory exemptions, and improvements in living conditions.

Mokpo City plans to designate the new port as an Opportunity Development Zone to present a future leap solution for the region facing economic and industrial limitations, and to promote corporate inflow, job creation, and population growth through new local industries.

Mayor Park Hong-ryul stated, “We will firmly establish the foundation for the successful development of the offshore wind power industry, take the lead in market preemption and ecosystem construction, and become a hub for renewable energy. We ask for the citizens’ great interest in the offshore wind power industry that will lead our region’s future economy.”

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