South Korea’s first Offshore Wind Energy Committee authorized a basic rewrite of how the nation builds offshore wind early in September. as an alternative of builders figuring out websites, securing native buy-in and navigating allowing on their very own, the federal government will now designate the zones itself, utilizing wind-resource, environmental, fisheries, maritime-traffic and navy knowledge earlier than inviting builders in. The state is concentrating on 25 GW of preliminary zones by 2031, anticipated to underpin round 20 GW of precise capability, with cumulative deployment reaching 45 GW by 2040.
The reform exists as a result of the previous mannequin failed, not as a precaution in opposition to it failing. South Korea’s offshore wind capability at the moment sits at simply 0.2 GW — roughly 1% of its personal 2030 goal of 14.3 GW. Builders spent years navigating as much as 29 completely different laws throughout 10 ministries, with ultimate web site approval solely confirmed on the final potential stage, leaving initiatives to advance for years with out a assured location. The consequence was persistent delay, native opposition from fishing communities, and a pipeline that by no means transformed into metal within the water.
India is working the identical experiment, with the identical consequence to this point
India’s personal offshore wind programme is, on the numbers, in a strikingly related place. Regardless of an estimated 70 GW of technical potential off Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, India has but to fee a single megawatt of offshore wind. SECI’s developer-led tenders — a 4 GW seabed lease off Tamil Nadu and a 500 MW venture within the Gulf of Khambhat — have been cancelled outright in August 2025 for lack of developer curiosity, largely as a result of viable tariffs have been supposedly ₹9.6/kWh in Tamil Nadu and ₹10.5/kWh in Gujarat, nicely above prevailing grid tariffs of round ₹7/kWh even after a ₹7,500 crore viability-gap-funding scheme.
MNRE is now getting ready a second try with a revised Tamil Nadu tender anticipated within the second half of 2026, as soon as extra constructed round inviting builders to bid on largely pre-identified websites, backed by VGF help fairly than a change in who does the location choice and de-risking. A parliamentary Standing Committee evaluate has individually flagged that 92.8% of MNRE’s total price range flows to photo voltaic alone, with no devoted 2026-27 price range line for offshore wind in any respect, and that India’s onshore wind provide chain would not prolong to offshore-specific elements like foundations, subsea cables, offshore substations — all nonetheless imported.
The absence of any working Indian venture compounds with underdeveloped ports, grid evacuation capability, and marine workforce abilities, elevating the danger premium builders value into their bids.
The distinction South Korea is betting on
Seoul, by making pre-designated, pre-assessed zones that embody with fisheries conflicts, environmental evaluate and grid-connection planning resolved earlier than a developer ever bids hopes to take away the years of front-loaded danger that made its personal open-door tenders unbankable. GWEC’s personal learn is that this could “considerably cut back allowing timelines for builders opting into the government-led course of,” simply the sort ofuncertainty that priced Indian builders out of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu on the tariffs on provide.
None of this ensures South Korea’s pivot succeeds. The primary preliminary zone is not due till later this yr, and operational initiatives beneath the brand new regime aren’t anticipated earlier than 2033. However it’s a reside take a look at of precisely the repair India’s personal Standing Committee has implicitly pointed to with out India but trying it: that de-risking the location, not simply subsidising the tariff, stands out as the precondition offshore wind really wants earlier than a second Indian tender spherical fares any higher than the primary.
