The waters off Incheon, identified as a key hub for carbon neutrality and the transition to renewable energy, have become a major testing ground. Large-scale offshore wind power projects with a total installed capacity exceeding 7 gigawatts are being pursued. However, conflicts and limitations emerging in the implementation process have exceeded dangerous levels, contrary to the momentum on the ground. Incheon Today will examine the key issues in Incheon's offshore wind power initiative and seek alternatives for coexistence between renewable energy transition and local communities.
Two representative Incheon offshore wind projects, Ørsted and Gulup Wind Development, have both lost their resident and fishery worker councils. Both projects share a common point: they have repeatedly faced criticism for "insufficient community acceptance" since receiving government approval. Now that the councils have collapsed, concerns are emerging that the projects' very rationale is being shaken.
Approval granted despite lack of community acceptance: warnings repeated for five years
Both projects faced noise from the outset of government review. In October 2018, C&I Leisure Industries, the parent company of Gulup Wind Development, installed a wind measurement device on Gulup-do (onshore), but the Energy Technology Research Institute pointed out that the onshore standard (2 kilometers) should be applied rather than the offshore standard (5 kilometers radius). Despite these controversies and opposition from fishery workers and residents, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy issued an Electricity Business License in September 2020, which was transferred to the subsidiary Gulup Wind Development through a physical split in December 2021.
At the time, Incheon Today reported that numerous procedural violations were found among the developers and that approvals were issued successively despite the failure to secure community acceptance. The government's subsequent establishment of public-private consultative bodies for public-led projects under the "Guidelines for Creating and Supporting Renewable Energy Integrated Zones" (November 2020) and regional councils for private-led projects under the "Offshore Wind Power Development Guide with Residents and Fishery Workers" (April 2023) came later. Approvals had already been issued during a period when there was no formal system to assess acceptance.
Ørsted followed a similar path. It received its initial wind measurement device approval from Ongjin County in November 2019 and applied for an Electricity Business License to the Ministry in November 2021. However, the 274th Electricity Regulatory Commission meeting held in December 2022 deferred the review, stating that efforts to increase regional acceptance were necessary.
In March 2023, residents of the Five West Sea Islands demanded that the Ministry halt the approval process, and civil society organizations called for the review to be deferred or suspended for the same reason. In October that year, Ørsted and local organizations signed an agreement to establish a council following the government's issuance of approval and the subsequent formulation of government guidelines. The 291st Electricity Regulatory Commission meeting in November 2023 then issued conditional approval.
Councils established after government guidelines, but dissolved within two years
After the government guidelines were formulated, both developers belatedly established formal councils. Gulup Wind Development held its first regional council meeting on June 21, 2023, and concluded a composition agreement and operational regulations. Ørsted signed a regional council composition agreement in the name of its Asia-Pacific Regional Head on October 9, 2023, and subsequently operated two additional shipowner councils divided into specific sea areas and general sea areas.
However, on December 30, 2024, just over two years later, local organizations and shipowner organizations in the specific sea area sent an official letter to Ørsted Asia-Pacific Regional CEO Pär Meinert Christensen raising fundamental questions: "Are we Ørsted's partners, or merely approval tools?"
An in-person meeting was held on January 27, and on February 12, CEO Christensen promised in a letter to continue listening with an open mind, communicate transparently, and strengthen long-term partnership with the council. However, the shipowner organizations determined that this promise was not kept. They found no meaningful progress or improvement in support facility operations, offshore wind auction cooperation, marine and fishery environment observation, scope of fishing area loss, navigation safety, fishing damage impacts, and fishing compensation.
Ultimately, the shipowner organizations formally notified Ørsted on March 30 that they were terminating the "contract regarding the establishment of the Incheon Offshore Wind Specific Sea Area Shipowner Council" because trust had not been restored. The Deokjeok-Jawol Fishing Village Cooperative Council, which had participated in the regional council, also had its council composition contract automatically terminated when Ørsted showed no improvement even during the one-month grace period set at the March regular meeting.
Ongjin County council under CJ family ownership shows signs of violating higher law, operating in name only
Coincidentally, Gulup Wind Development's council also collapsed around the same time. However, the background is the opposite of Ørsted's situation. While Ørsted saw residents and fishery workers withdraw trust first, Gulup Wind Development was the developer that first notified the existing council of its termination, using the Ongjin County council as a pretext.
At a joint meeting held in February, Gulup Wind Development announced that it would terminate regional council operations and be incorporated into the public-private consultative body being launched by Ongjin County. In the government's fixed-price contract competitive auction review, official recognition from the competent local government is required regarding council activities and representativeness. Ongjin County's separately launched council in January this year did not clarify its position on the existing regional council, creating concerns that it would not secure the necessary recognition at the time of the auction.
In response to this announcement, members of the existing regional and shipowner councils raised concerns, and the shipowner organization operating within the planned power plant area notified Gulup Wind Development that it could not be trusted and terminated shipowner council operations.
The problem is that the Ongjin County council that Gulup Wind Development sought to switch to was itself deficient from its launch. Ongjin County officially launched the "Ongjin County Offshore Wind Power Regional Council" in January and held its first meeting, but criticism emerged that the composition of members did not meet higher law standards and required complete restructuring.
The enforcement decree of the Special Act on the Promotion of Offshore Wind Power Deployment and the Development of Related Industries, implemented in March, stipulates that the ratio of public interest committee members in public-private consultative bodies must be at least 20 percent. However, Ongjin County appointed the director of the Economic and Industrial Bureau, who should have been classified as a government member, as a public interest member, resulting in a situation where there were effectively no public interest members.
Actual fishery workers operating in the waters surrounding the project area were excluded, and only residents such as village chiefs were appointed as members. A company representative appointed as an advisory member without basis in higher law also served concurrently as the head of the contractor for Incheon City's Public-Private Consultative Body operations, raising concerns about conflicts of interest.
However, even this deficient council has since come to a virtual standstill. After new county officials and county council members took office following the June 3 local elections, full-scale operations have not resumed for eight months. Ongjin County amended its ordinance in August, stating that it would address violations of higher law, and now plans to pursue research projects to secure community acceptance.
Ørsted faces withdrawal rumors and fire accidents, but approval timeline does not stop
Even after the councils collapsed, the approval process has not stopped. Gulup Wind Development submitted to the government's wind power fixed-price contract competitive auction on May 11 and was selected in the auction on June 30. Four months after the council broke apart, it passed a procedure in which community acceptance is explicitly evaluated.
Ørsted's situation is becoming more complex. After David Taeseung Yoo was appointed as the new Korea representative in early this year, councils were terminated successively, ending not only the specific sea area shipowner council but also the general sea area shipowner council operations. Additionally, as Ørsted reviews its domestic projects, rumors of "withdrawal from Korea" have emerged.
New concerns about equipment safety have also surfaced. A turbine fire occurred on August 8 at the Greater Changhua offshore wind farm operated by Ørsted in Taiwan, and in April 2022, a rotor and nacelle fell entirely into the sea at the Anholt offshore wind farm in Denmark. Despite this, Ørsted submitted its environmental impact assessment main report on April 21 and continues the approval process.
The "Incheon City Offshore Wind Public-Private Consultative Body" that Incheon City has operated for the same project area has already been terminated. With both Ørsted and Gulup Wind Development, the communication channels for community engagement in private-led offshore wind projects are simultaneously wavering. Including the previously terminated Incheon City Public-Private Consultative Body (public-led), community acceptance for Incheon's offshore wind projects overall is now in crisis regardless of approach.
Community acceptance issues to be revisited at each post-approval procedure remain unclear
Both projects have significant remaining procedures after receiving the Electricity Business License. Construction cannot begin until they complete environmental impact assessment, maritime traffic safety assessment, military operations review (radio wave impact assessment), fishing damage impact survey, and implementation plan approval for public water surface use. At each of these steps, issues such as fishing damage compensation, navigation corridor separation, and marine environmental impacts are bound to resurface, yet the official channels to discuss them have already collapsed.
Although the Special Act on the Promotion of Offshore Wind Power Deployment and the Development of Related Industries took effect in March, it has not yet been applied to existing local government-led and private-led transitional developers. The government is preparing notices to incorporate them into the special law system.
Incheon City has selected Incheon Urban Development Corporation as the offshore wind integrated zone developer and is conducting a project to improve public-private consultative body operations, while Ongjin County is also preparing its own public-private consultative body including the integrated zone.
On August 26, 2026, the National Assembly passed an amendment to the Public Water Surface Act that mandates the reflection of opinions from interested parties such as fishery workers in public water surface use and occupancy permits. This is expected to apply to future ground survey and construction approval for Ørsted, Gulup Wind Development, and Ocean Winds.
Whether Ørsted will actually withdraw from domestic projects or present new trust recovery measures is also worth watching. If withdrawal becomes reality, new developments could unfold regarding the fate of the already-acquired Electricity Business License and ongoing environmental impact assessment, and whether business rights will be resold.
Gulup Wind Development has already been selected in the fixed-price auction and is moving toward construction, but the institutional foundation of community acceptance that should support it has double gaps: the dissolution of the regional council and the vacancy of the Ongjin County council. How the gap between the policy goal of renewable energy transition and the resident participation procedures that should support its legitimacy is bridged will likely become the test that determines the next stage of Incheon's offshore wind projects overall.
KWI developer profile — Ørsted
2 projects in Korea totalling 1,470 MW. Compiled from the KWI database. Not part of the source article.
Incheon 1 Offshore Wind — this article
|  |
Incheon 2 Offshore Wind — this article
| |
Project data: KWI database — Electricity Business Licence records, EIA filings (ME2025C009, ME2025C010), Electricity Regulatory Commission minutes, and pre-EBL permit filings.
KWI project profile — Gulupdo Offshore WindCompiled from the KWI database. Not part of the source article.
| C&I Leisure |
Project data: KWI database — Electricity Business Licence records, EIA filings (ME2023C026), and Electricity Regulatory Commission minutes.
Original Korean article: Incheon Today
English brief by Korea Wind Intelligence, koreawindintel.com
