South Korea proceeds with largest single-site PV project to date

A groundbreaking ceremony for South Korea’s largest solar complex to date will take place tomorrow (August 7).

The 400 MW Haenam solar power complex, to be located in the south of the country, will be built on approximately 4.79 million square metres of idle land, including reclaimed saline land. Earlier this year, Korea South-East Power Co. (KOEN) was selected as the preferred engineering, procurement and construction bidder for the project.

The site is expected to be completed in 2028. Once operational, it will supply 529 GWh of electricity annually – equivalent to the consumption of around 130,000 Korean households – to companies and industrial complexes that have adopted 100% renewable energy targets.

South Korea’s Minister of Climate, Energy and Environment, Kim Sung-hwan, commented that the project forms part of the ministry’s plan to lower power generation costs by expanding the supply of large-scale renewable energy projects on idle sites of land.

The project will be built using domestically-produced solar modules, cells and inverters, according to an update posted by the ministry. In May, Korean manufacturer Hanwha QCells announced it had been selected to supply cells and modules required for the project, produced at the company’s plant in the province of North Chungcheong.

The project also plans to establish a resident participation and profit-sharing system. The mechanism will enable local residents to participate in the project by sharing power generation profits with the local community. The ministry says this will ensure a total KRW 150 billion ($105.2 million) in power generation profits is returned to the local community during the project period.

Similar profit-sharing modules have been undertaken in former utility-scale PV projects in South Korea, such as the 47.2 MW Ihma Dam solar project, finished last November, which is the country’s largest floating PV array located alongside a multi-purpose dam.

The ministry’s latest update also confirms 10 MW of the Haenam complex will be developed as agricultural solar power. The country passed its first dedicated agrivoltaics legislation earlier this year.

South Korea’s cumulative solar capacity reached 30,346 MW by the end of 2025, according to figures published by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), a 3.6 GW increase on figures reported at the end of 2024.

In July, it announced its latest solar tender covering 1 GW of new solar capacity with a bid ceiling price of KRW 147,686/kWh.