By Jungdo Kim, Director of the ARC Center
On February 9, after a heated debate, the Agriculture, Economy, and Fisheries Committee of the Jeju Provincial Council passed the “Consent Motion for the Change of Tamra Offshore Wind Power District Designation” in its original form, supplemented by additional conditions. The fact that the motion passed despite significant internal friction—including committee members demanding their opposition be explicitly recorded in the minutes—is a testament to how sensitive and controversial this expansion issue has become.
The essence of this crisis lies in whether a massive development, effectively a new project, can be pushed forward under the guise of a mere “expansion and change.” Current ordinances mandate that any project change exceeding 10% must undergo procedures equivalent to a new district designation. However, the Jeju provincial government repeatedly asserts that it only needs to follow the post-operator selection district designation procedures.
This directly contradicts the spirit of the “Public-Led Wind Power Development 2.0 Plan” established by the province itself. According to that plan, the Jeju Energy Corporation is tasked with identifying the site, selecting an operator through a public contest to maximize resident benefits, and then pursuing district designation. For the province’s argument to be valid, there would need to be an exception clause in the relevant plans or notices stating: “In the event of an expansion of 10% or more, the public contest procedure is omitted, and the existing operator’s rights are recognized.” No such legal basis exists. This is, in fact, an “expedient expansion” that exploits institutional loopholes.
If this precedent is allowed to stand, there will be no way to prevent a series of reckless expansions in the future. Once an operator secures a license for under 100MW and later decides to inflate its capacity to 400MW or even 1GW, the province will lack the institutional mechanisms to control it. This will inevitably lead to a chaotic proliferation of offshore wind projects, overdevelopment, and irreversible destruction of the marine environment. We must ask whether the Jeju provincial government has the actual will to protect and manage Jeju’s precious marine resources.
Furthermore, Tamra Offshore Wind Power has not yet resolved the extension of its existing operations. Granting a massive expansion while the review for the extension of the current project is still pending is a failure of rational administration. We remember all too clearly how past development projects, lacking procedural legitimacy, plunged the Jeju community into deep conflict and confusion.
The expansion issue should have been handled transparently under the foundational principles of “maximizing resident benefits” and “ensuring public interest.” Instead, those efforts have been abandoned. It is imperative that we initiate a process of deeper deliberation and public consultation immediately. We must prevent this decision from becoming a bad precedent that undermines a just transition to renewable energy and ruins Jeju’s oceans.
It is not too late. The Jeju Provincial Council must immediately postpone the tabling of this motion at the plenary session and seek a solution through genuine public consultation. Rather than leaving an indelible stain on the history of Jeju’s wind power development with a forced and hasty decision, the Council must open a forum for deliberation right now. We look forward to a historical and courageous decision from the Jeju Provincial Council.
This article was contributed to Jejusori on March 10, 2026.