Korea proposes public-led site discovery for renewable energy expansion
The Korean government is proposing a public-led 'planned siting' system to proactively discover large-scale candidate sites for renewable energy expansion, moving away from the current private, individual site acquisition method.
Our take
Will Korea's public-led site search speed up large solar and onshore wind projects?
Not yet, because Korea's public-led site search for large solar and onshore wind has no published site criteria or selection process, so it does not shorten development timelines today.
Unlike the offshore wind scheme, the government will not finish permits before choosing developers, so site risk is only partly removed. What would change the answer is whether candidate sites are opened to private bidders or developed by state-owned generators, which is not published.
For investors — Solar and wind developers should keep building private site pipelines and track the task force's first candidate list and allocation rules for any private bidding route.
Lenders should not treat planned siting as lower permitting risk until a project has passed the grid and environmental reviews the scheme describes.
Watch: The proposal of a public-led 'planned siting' system for renewable energy projects.
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