Government Announces 2.25GW Competitive Bidding for Wind and Solar Power
The government has announced competitive bidding for wind power plants with a capacity of 1.25GW and solar power plants with a capacity of 1GW in the first half of this year. For wind power plants, the existing two-stage evaluation will be maintained while strengthening the “security factor” in the evaluation criteria.
According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the New and Renewable Energy Center of the Korea Energy Agency announced on May 26 the “2025 First Half Wind and Solar Power Fixed Price Contract Competitive Bidding.” First, 1.25GW will be bid for fixed offshore wind power plants. Of this, 0.5GW is allocated for public-led bidding market volume.
Public-led offshore wind power plants are structured so that public institutions hold more than half of the project shares, allowing participation from not only power generation public corporations but also various development corporations established by local governments. The ministry plans to conduct bidding for fixed offshore wind power plants in the first half of the year, and then determine the volume for floating offshore wind and onshore wind power plants based on the remaining volume and bidding demand in the second half.
This year’s wind power plant competitive bidding evaluation will include a new security index. It will account for 8 points in public-led projects and 6 points in general projects. The scoring criteria for security evaluation are expected to include stability of power generation facilities and energy supply, contribution to domestic supply chains, and diversification of suppliers. This is intended to protect the domestic offshore wind supply chain ecosystem by minimizing the use of foreign equipment vulnerable to eavesdropping or hacking, or with potential for supply disruption.
The upper limit of the fixed price for wind power plant competitive bidding this year remains the same as last year at 176,565 won per MWh. A ministr official said, “The upper limit was determined considering overseas cases and global levelized cost of energy (LCOE) trends,” adding, “Preferential pricing is provided for public-led projects, and additional preferential pricing is offered when utilizing the results of government R&D demonstration projects.”
In the first half of the year, solar power plants with a capacity of 1GW will be put up for competitive bidding. The upper limit of the fixed price has been set at 155,742 won, slightly lower than last year (157,307 won). However, to promote the use of low-carbon solar modules that emit less carbon during the manufacturing process, the carbon emission criteria for receiving the minimum preferential price have been slightly strengthened.
Furthermore, considering the significant demand for renewable energy purchases from RE100 (100% Renewable Energy) companies, the ministry will continue to operate the power purchase agreement (PPA) intermediary market that was introduced as a pilot last year. The ministry plans to expand the scope and duration of PPA contracts to support active contracting between the power plants selected in this competitive bidding and RE100 demand companies.