Ørsted may need to reduce the area of its 1.4 GW Incheon offshore wind project again as maritime traffic safety requirements affect the planned site’s northern boundary.
The development consists of two adjacent offshore wind projects with a combined capacity of 1,400 MW in waters west of Deokjeok Island in Ongjin County, Incheon.
The affected maritime corridor is used by vessels and also serves as an emergency evacuation route for residents of Baengnyeong Island near the Northern Limit Line. The permitting issue therefore involves maritime safety requirements as well as restrictions raised by the Ministry of National Defense.
The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries revised its Maritime Traffic Safety Audit Implementation Guidelines in April 2025. Under the guidelines, the boundary formed by the outermost turbines must generally remain at least 0.5 nautical miles, or 926 m, from a vessel transit route.
For a wind farm located on the starboard side of a route, the required separation is based on six times the length of the largest vessel using the route, stated at about 80 m, together with 500 m and an additional 0.3 nautical miles, or 555 m.
Applying the requirement to the Incheon development could force Ørsted to move the project’s northern boundary southward by as much as one nautical mile.
EU guidance cited in the source sets a minimum distance of 2 nautical miles between the outer boundary of a wind farm and a vessel transit route.
The project also faces a separate requirement raised by the Ministry of National Defense. In September 2024, the ministry objected to a sea-area occupancy permit sought by Ørsted for geotechnical survey work, citing restrictions associated with naval and commercial navigation safety.
The ministry requested that the survey area be shifted by at least one nautical mile to both the north and the south, using route coordinates specified in navigation rules for the north-west islands.
A civic group representing the five north-west border islands has separately asked regulators to treat the safety corridor as 2 nautical miles wide, extending one nautical mile on either side. It has also requested siting-impact analysis and disaster response manuals covering incidents such as blade detachment and turbine fires.
A further reduction has not been decided. The project is currently in environmental impact assessment consultation at the main-phase stage. An Ørsted representative said the matter required internal confirmation and that no specific answer could be provided at this stage.
The Incheon development has already undergone one major adjustment. It was initially planned at 1.6 GW before fishing communities and residents of the border islands raised concerns that the planned array overlapped the Incheon–Baengnyeong safety corridor.
In November 2023, Ørsted reduced the project area by about 30 percent and moved the boundary more than one nautical mile away from the corridor. Conditional development approval was later granted, subject to securing community consent.
Ørsted holds electricity business licences for the two adjoining projects west of Deokjeok Island, which now have a combined planned capacity of 1.4 GW.
