China's rapid rise as an offshore wind power giant rests on one key advantage: speed. The Jinshan offshore wind farm Phase 1 project near Shanghai exemplifies this approach. The project, which installs 36 large 8.5-megawatt wind turbines in Hangzhou Bay, received approval just two years after competitive allocation was confirmed in 2022, and achieved grid connection in September 2025. The winning bid price was 0.302 yuan per kilowatt-hour, about 60 won, lower than Shanghai's coal-fired generation benchmark of 0.4155 yuan per kilowatt-hour, or about 82 won.
South Korea's pace is comparatively slow. The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), an American energy policy think tank, recently assessed the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment's (MCEE) plan to tender 55 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity over the next decade as "challenging" when considering the physical time and resources required for such projects. The government's target is twice the volume of offshore wind that all of Europe installed over the past decade. The ministry aims simultaneously to pursue supply chain localization and cost reduction, measures that place burdens on developers, prompting questions about whether policy targets have been set unrealistically.
