South Korea Awards 1.9GW of Offshore Wind Capacity in Auction

South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy has allocated nearly 1.9GW of offshore wind capacity through its latest offshore wind auction. A total of five projects were selected, spanning both fixed-bottom and floating wind developments.

Specifically, the ministry awarded 1,886MW of capacity, which includes three fixed-bottom projects — one of which is divided into two phases — and one floating wind project.

The selected projects are the 750MW Firefly floating wind farm led by Equinor, the 500MW Taean project by Vena Energy, Daehan Green Power's 104MW Yeonggwang Yawol development, and the 532MW Anma project in Jeonnam. The Anma project is unique in that it will be built in two phases, with the first phase delivering 224MW and the second contributing 308MW.

In addition to the capacity awards, the government granted 20-year fixed tariff power purchase agreements to the four developers. The auction's price ceiling was set at $124.3 per megawatt-hour.

The tender for 2.8GW of combined wind and solar capacity was initially launched in October. Of this, 1.5GW was reserved for offshore wind, with a goal of 1GW for fixed-bottom projects and 500MW for floating wind. Both targets were surpassed in the final awards.