South Korea’s Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment (MCEE) has unveiled a tender for around 1 GW of new solar capacity.
The tender, which offers winning bidders a fixed-price contract, has been awarded a bid ceiling price of KRW 147,686 ($99.46)/kWh, about 5% lower than last year’s 1 GW solar tender.
The tender also includes preferential prices for solar panels with a lower carbon footprint, taking into account their contribution to the domestic industry and supply chain, according to MCEE.
The preferential price adds an additional KRW 16/kWh for the use of Class 1 certified modules, with the lowest CO2 emissions during production, and KRW 7/kWh for Class 2 certified modules.
These preferential prices represent an increase of 4 KRW/kWh and a decrease of 2 KRW/kWh compared to the previous year, which according to the ministry takes into account the recent difference in market prices with modules outside this level.
MCEE and Korea Energy Agency plan to hold an online video briefing session on the tender on July 21.
The ministry’s latest updates also confirm that this is the last year of bidding before a reform of the Renewable Energy Supply Obligation (RPS) system, which covers the country’s solar tenders, to replace it with capacity-based government auctions.
According to figures released earlier this year, South Korea’s fixed-price tender system has selected more than 10 GW of solar capacity since its launch in 2017.
South Korea’s cumulative solar capacity reached 30,346 MW at the end of 2025, according to figures published by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), an increase of 3.6 GW from figures reported at the end of 2024.
