Eight companies build full-cycle offshore wind supply chain
GS Entech, Doosan Enerbility, Hanwha Ocean and five other companies are building a full-cycle supply chain spanning offshore wind component production through installation vessel construction. The government will raise the domestic content ratio of wind turbines to 60 percent or higher and introduce domestic production tax credits to support this effort.
Eight offshore wind supply chain companies are participating in the signature project, a flagship K-GX initiative led by industry with government support. GS Entech and six other companies will establish production bases for offshore wind core components by 2030 and use them as export footholds.
The government announced the Korean Green Transformation, or K-GX, strategy on October 7 with these details. The K-GX strategy is a plan to simultaneously achieve carbon neutrality and sustainable economic growth. It will invest 1 quadrillion won over ten years, comprising 200 trillion won in government finances and over 790 trillion won in climate finance.
Tax support will also be provided. The government will revise laws and enforcement decrees in the first quarter of 2027 to designate core components and equipment in green industries such as wind power as targets for domestic production tax credits. The domestic content ratio of wind turbines will be raised from 39 percent in 2021 to 2025 to 60 percent or higher in 2031 to 2035.
Essential offshore wind infrastructure will also be expanded. Support berths will be increased from four to thirteen berths. One berth is the unit area where one vessel can dock. Offshore wind requires ultra-large equipment and must undergo installation processes at sea, making the securing of dedicated port facilities critical. Dedicated installation vessels will also be expanded from two to six.
The government will also pursue localization and commercialization of 20 megawatt or larger ultra-large turbines. It plans to develop ultra-large offshore wind turbine models by 2034. A 100 megawatt-class floating offshore wind demonstration complex will also be constructed starting in 2027.
This strategy supports targets presented in the first renewable energy basic plan announced in May. The government plans to increase offshore wind supply capacity from 1 gigawatt annually in 2025 to 4 gigawatts annually by 2030. The vision is to emerge as a Northeast Asian offshore wind hub by 2035. The cumulative wind power capacity target for 2030 presented in the basic plan is 9.0 gigawatts. Onshore wind will increase from 2.1 gigawatts in 2025 to 6.0 gigawatts in 2030, while offshore wind will increase from 0.4 gigawatts to 3.0 gigawatts over the same period.
The government assessed the technology level of South Korea's wind industry as ranking fourth to fifth globally. Strengths exist in towers and marine plants, but large turbines are a weakness. Market share is approximately 25 percent for wind towers, excluding the Chinese market, but less than 1 percent for turbines.
Original Korean article: Daum
English brief by Korea Wind Intelligence, koreawindintel.com
