As the government accelerates an energy transition centered on renewables, analysts say Korea must raise the share of wind power to address solar's chronic problem of intermittency. Solar plants cannot generate electricity at all without sunlight, while wind turbines can run 24 hours a day. European countries such as Germany, which have pursued renewable expansion policies since the 2010s, adopted strategies that scaled up solar and wind together.
Total installed wind power capacity nationwide stood at 2.57 gigawatts as of the end of September, according to the Electric Power Statistics Information System (EPSIS) run by the Korea Power Exchange on the 1st. That is just 6.2% of the country's 41.41 GW of total renewable energy capacity. The shortfall reflects the fact that the rapid rollout of renewable capacity since the Moon Jae-in administration was centered on solar. Renewable generation capacity expanded 5.2-fold over a decade, from 7.42 GW in 2015 to 38.75 GW at the end of last year, but wind capacity rose only threefold over the same period, from 0.83 GW to 2.44 GW.
Germany, by contrast, widely regarded as a leader in renewable energy, expanded solar and wind in tandem from the outset. The German government adopted its Energy Concept 2010 policy that year, aggressively raising the share of renewable generation. Germany's total renewable capacity grew from 56.5 GW in 2010 to 214.1 GW in 2025.
What sets Germany apart from Korea is that wind capacity exceeded solar from the early stages of its renewable rollout. In 2010, German wind capacity stood at 26.8 GW, ahead of solar at 18 GW. That lead persisted until 2022. Wind's share of total renewable generation capacity peaked at 49.5% in 2017 and remained above 40% through 2023. In Britain and Denmark, which like Germany border the North Sea, wind accounted for roughly 50% of total renewable generation capacity as of the end of last year.
"Wind turbines stand 100 to 200 meters tall," an industry official said. "At that altitude in mid-latitude regions, westerly winds blow at a steady level year-round, so the turbines operate day and night." Combining solar and wind effectively allows for an energy mix in which wind covers overnight demand, which runs at low levels, while solar handles daytime demand that peaks around midday.
The advantages of wind power are evident in daily supply-and-demand data. On the 30th of last month, solar output climbed in earnest with sunrise and reached 23.59 GW at noon, accounting for 31.3% of total power demand. As sunset approached at 6:30 p.m., solar output fell to 0.14 GW. To fill the gap, power authorities had to sharply increase output from energy storage systems and pumped-storage plants as well as liquefied natural gas generation. Wind farms, by comparison, produced a steady 300 to 400 megawatts throughout the day.
Experts therefore expect that once large offshore wind farms begin commercial operation, the daily swing in renewable generation will narrow significantly. Son Seok-woo, a professor in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Seoul National University, wrote in a paper submitted to the Korean Meteorological Society that offshore wind and solar are seasonally complementary. "Used together, they help raise daily availability in summer and improve intraday stability in winter," the professor said.
Some argue that offshore wind holds greater potential than onshore wind given Korea's terrain. Because the country has limited land and extensive mountainous areas, onshore wind farms can only be built along the coast or on ridges of the Baekdudaegan mountain range. "Just moving wind equipment into mountainous terrain is difficult, and on top of that the projects draw criticism for destroying forests, so onshore wind faces many obstacles," an industry official said. "Offshore wind, by contrast, uses large turbines for higher efficiency, and with sea on three sides the potential is ample."
