Yeosu City Selected in Ministry of Industry's 'Public-led Offshore Wind Farm Complex Development' Contest

Promotion of Offshore Wind Farm Development Aligned with Government Planned Sites

80 Billion Won Invested Including National Funds

Yeosu City, Jeollanam-do (Mayor Jeong Gi-myeong) was finally selected on the 23rd for the ‘Offshore Wind Farm Complex Development Support Project (Project Operator Recruitment)’ overseen by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and managed by the Korea Energy Agency, signaling the full-scale promotion of the South Sea Southern Region offshore wind power project.

The city secured 2.175 billion KRW in national funding through this recruitment, and plans to invest a total project cost of 8 billion KRW from the city budget and 5.025 billion KRW from private capital, totaling 8 billion KRW, to develop a new 3GW offshore wind farm complex over three years until 2026.

[Photo provided by Yeosu City]

Previously, the city applied for the project focusing on ▲establishing carbon neutrality measures for the Yeosu National Industrial Complex ▲forming a consortium of Yeosu City, the Green Energy Research Institute, and private investment companies ▲promoting a ‘Wind Pension’ to share profits from power plant operations with local residents.

As private investors, four public enterprises, five domestic companies, and three foreign companies submitted letters of intent to participate, and the final project operator is planned to be selected through detailed agreements in October.

Meanwhile, Yeosu City aims to establish a total of 9GW offshore wind farm complexes by 2032.

Specifically, ▲6GW, including 4.5GW for which private operators have already obtained permits from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, will be promoted as a ‘local government-led integrated complex,’ and ▲3GW of new public development complexes will be promoted as ‘government-led planned sites.’

The government-led approach aims to enhance financial stability and project success rates, while increasing the investment efficiency for private investors without conflicting with the government’s bidding plans.

A city official explained, “Yeosu has stable wind speeds reaching 8m/s and a wide sea area. It is adjacent to definite power consumption sites such as the Yeosu National Industrial Complex, the world’s largest single-scale petrochemical complex, Gwangyang POSCO, and Hadong thermal power plant. Also, the military operation zones are relatively fewer compared to the East and West coasts, making it an ideal location for offshore wind power projects.”

He added, “As Yeosu is entering the offshore wind power sector as a latecomer, we will actively adopt methods tried in advanced domestic sites and simultaneously promote government-led offshore wind farm complex development to accelerate the project.”

Reporter Heo Seon-sik, Honam Reporting Headquarters, Asia Economy hss79@asiae.co.kr

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