Offshore Wind Worldwide 2022 edition - Flipbook - Page 162
162
HoganofLovells
Republic
Korea
and Korea Environment Institute and (ii)
collate opinions from local stakeholders.
2. P
ublic Waters Occupancy Permit
OWFs are constructed in “public waters”
(the area between the Korean coastline to
the outer limit of the exclusive economic
zone 200 nautical miles from such
coastline). To use public waters in the
construction of an OWF, the developer
must first obtain a PWOP from the
applicable PWMA pursuant to the Public
Water Management and Reclamation Act.
The PWMA may grant an occupancy
permit for a period of up to 30 years
(including the construction period)
following the consultation requirements
set forth below.
Issuance of the 30-year public waters
occupancy permit may require:
1.consultation with the MOF;
2.consultation with the Ministry of
Environment;
3.consultation with the Ministry of
National Defense; and
4.consultation with the Ministry of the
Interior and Safety.
In addition, the Public Waters
Management and Reclamation Act (and
its Enforcement Decree) requires
developers to obtain consent from
“interested parties” for the use of public
waters. “Interested parties” means the
persons who hold the rights which are
expected to be infringed by a relevant
PWOP, including owners of land or
structures adjacent to, persons with
fishing rights to, and persons with PWOPs
for areas that are the same as or nearby,
such public waters.
The developer should obtain approval of
its public waters occupancy
implementation plan from the PWMA
within one year of the issuance of the
applicable PWOP but prior to
commencing construction of the facilities.
Recently, the Public Waters Management
and Reclamation Act was amended in
order to guarantee the rights of fishermen
in January 2022. Before a relevant public
waters agency approves a permit to
occupy or use public waters, the
amendments mandatorily require that it
identifies, and collects the views of,
relevant persons who may be adversely
affected by such permit.
3. EIA
As noted above, although the EIA Act
generally requires that wind power
projects with generation capacity of
100MW or more complete an EIA prior to
commencement of construction, projects
with generation capacity less than 100MW
may also be (and often are) subject to a
small-scaled EIA. The EIA process
generally involves a public hearing and
takes approximately one year to complete,
although a small-scaled EIA may be
completed in less than a year. The process
begins when a developer submits its EIA
proposal to the Ministry of Environment
(or, in certain circumstances set forth in
the EPSDP Act, directly to the MOTIE))
outlining its proposed scope, methods,