South Korea plans 7-8 GW of offshore wind tenders

South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) on Thursday announced an Offshore Wind Power Competitive Bidding Roadmap to promote investment in the offshore wind sector.

The plan involves moving the timing of competitive bidding for wind power projects from the fourth quarter to the second quarter of each year, with a notice of an additional tender to be issued in the fourth quarter if necessary. From the second half of 2024 to the first half of 2026, the government will launch offshore wind power tenders for about 7 GW to 8 GW of capacity.

The government will adopt a two-stage process to evaluate bids. The first round will assess non-price attributes and the second will be based on price competition. The first- and second-round scores will be added up to select a winner. The government also plans to increase the score given for non-price criteria from 40 now to 50 and introduce additional evaluation criteria like maintenance, security and public works.

The ministry also said that from this year, a bid market for floating wind turbine projects will be created in addition to the existing one for fixed-bottom projects.

Vice Minister Choe expects that by helping to present a stable bid quantity early on, the roadmap will accelerate large-scale investments in offshore wind power, leading to job creation and the development of related infrastructure such as ports and ships.

The announcement says that with domestic wind power installations seen to reach 18.3 GW by 2030 under the draft 11th Basic Plan on Electricity Supply and Demand, large-scale offshore wind competitive bidding will be needed.

MOTIE further said it plans to release a wind power tender in October, to be preceded by a tender briefing in September.

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