South Korea's installed renewable energy capacity has reached 41.04 GW as of October 21, surpassing the 40.76 GW of coal-fired power capacity for the first time, according to the Korea Power Exchange (KPX).

Renewables now account for 25.4% of installed generation capacity, making them the second-largest source after liquefied natural gas at 46.79 GW. The gap between renewables and LNG has narrowed to about 5.75 GW, KPX said.

Renewable capacity grew by an average of about 3.5 GW a year in 2020-2025, roughly 4.3 times the 807 MW added annually for LNG. If both trends continue, renewables could overtake LNG within two to three years to become the largest source of installed capacity, KPX noted. 

KPX said it will support the government's target of 100 GW of renewables by 2030 through closely tracking deployment, expanding public data disclosure and working with industry and agencies.

The milestone follows a government plan to raise transmission-level hosting capacity for renewables from 119 GW to 171 GW by 2030 and distribution-level capacity from 84 GW to 110 GW. The plan allows solar projects to connect above normal grid limits with output curtailed when networks are constrained, and raises connection limits on distribution lines and at substations.

South Korea's solar additions reached 3.1 GW in both 2024 and 2025, and the Export-Import Bank of Korea expects the country to install 3.5 GW of solar in 2026. The country's First Renewable Energy Basic Plan includes about 56.2 GW of new solar capacity as part of its 100 GW renewables target.