South Korea's installed renewable energy capacity has overtaken coal for the first time, according to data from the Korea Power Exchange (KPX) reported by pv magazine. As of October 21, 2026, renewables stood at 41,040 MW against 40,757 MW for coal, a lead of 283 MW.
The numbers
Renewables now make up 25.4% of the country's installed generation capacity and have become the second-largest source after liquefied natural gas. LNG remains in first place with 46,788 MW, about 5,748 MW ahead of renewables.
The milestone refers to installed capacity, not electricity generation. Coal plants still run for far more hours a year than solar or wind farms, so coal continues to produce a larger share of Korea's power. But the direction is clear.
A steady build-out
Between the end of 2020 and the end of 2025, renewable capacity grew by an average of about 3,504 MW a year. That is around 4.3 times the roughly 807 MW a year added for LNG. KPX says that if both trends continue, renewables could also overtake LNG within two to three years.
Solar is doing most of the work. Solar additions passed 3.1 GW in 2024 and reached 3.1 GW again in 2025, and the Export-Import Bank of Korea expects 3.5 GW of solar installations in 2026.
Targets and the grid
The government aims for 100 GW of renewables by 2030. The First Renewable Energy Basic Plan, published earlier this year, includes roughly 56.2 GW of new solar as part of that goal.
To make room for it, Korea plans to raise grid hosting capacity by 2030 from 119 GW to 171 GW at transmission level and from 84 GW to 110 GW at distribution level. Solar projects may already connect above normal grid limits if they accept curtailment when the network is constrained. The connection limit per distribution line has been raised from 14 MW to 16 MW, and the limit at a substation from 50 MW to 60 MW.
A new way to win grid access
From January 2027, the rules for grid access change. Connection rights will be linked to a reformed renewable portfolio standard, and access will go to projects selected through competitive bidding rather than on a first-come, first-served basis.
Storage is being added alongside. On September 22 KPX opened a tender for 1,100 MW / 6,600 MWh of six-hour battery storage on the mainland, plus 80 MW on Jeju Island. Contracts run for 15 years, winners are due to be announced in November, and projects must be commissioned by February 2029.
What it means
For the Asia-Pacific market, Korea's milestone shows that even an industrial economy with limited land and a coal-heavy past can shift its capacity mix quickly. The move to competitive grid access from 2027 will reward developers with ready, well-sited projects and favour solar paired with storage. For equipment suppliers and investors, a pipeline of more than 50 GW of new solar this decade makes Korea one of the region's most important growth markets outside China and India.
Source: pv magazine, based on Korea Power Exchange data.
