On 3 December 2025, the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment (MCEE) announced the “Onshore Wind Power Activation Strategy” and launched a government‑wide task force dedicated to accelerating onshore wind development.
The strategy aims to achieve 6GW of onshore wind and a generation cost of KRW 150/kWh or less by 2030, and sets out comprehensive measures – spanning proactive site identification, regulatory rationalisation and financial support – to address bottlenecks arising from delays in permitting and community acceptance issues.
Key takeaways
- Public-led planned sites: Suitable sites (including national forests) will be proactively identified and key prerequisites such as environmental impact assessment (EIA) consultation and grid connection approval are to be pre completed to reduce project uncertainty.
- Wind measurement: One year of historical wind data provided by the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) may replace on site anemometer data when applying for a generation license. This will shorten the project preparation period. How multiple applicants relying on KMA data will be prioritised will need to be considered further.
- Temporary mountain land use: Reflecting the trend toward larger wind turbines, the maximum mountain area eligible for installing wind power facilities via a temporary mountain land use permit, without requiring Determination of Urban Planning Facilities, will increase from 100,000㎡ to 200,000㎡.
- Earlier risk screening: Environmental siting consulting for onshore wind projects will include a military operational impact assessment to flag risks related to permitting early in the site selection stage. However, as this consultation is advisory in nature and conducted by a non-licensing authority, the conclusions reached at this stage may not be binding and may differ from those reached at the formal permitting stage.
- Repowering: Where turbine locations remain unchanged, new wind measurements may be omitted, and existing post construction monitoring results may be used for the EIA. This will simplify repowering approval procedures. However, further clarification may be required as to whether a priority is granted to repowering projects without new on-site measurements if there are others preparing wind power projects in the vicinity of repowering sites.
- Grid capacity management: Grid reservations without any progress in permitting may be cancelled, with capacity reallocated to active projects.
- Financial guarantees: Public guarantees – previously focused on offshore wind – will be extended to onshore wind, covering up to 70% of project finance loans.
- Competitive bidding market: A public led competitive bidding market will be established for onshore wind, with evaluation criteria incorporating domestic supply chain contribution and security factors to encourage use of domestic equipment.
- Setback codification: Setback regulations that vary widely or are excessively restrictive across municipalities will be codified to establish reasonable national standards. Given the differing infrastructure conditions, among others, it is expected that legislation may establish a maximum regulatory cap on setback distances, within which local governments would retain discretion to set detailed standards. The specific content of such regulations, however, will depend on future legislative developments and amendments to subordinate regulations.
- Community participation: A “Wind Income Village” model will be introduced to allow resident equity participation, with profits allocated to local public projects. Participants will receive increased policy finance limits and priority grid connection.
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[Korean version] ‘육상풍력 발전 활성화 전략’ 발표
