Partial Amendment to the Public Waters Management and Reclamation Act

This member's bill, under committee review since June 2025, modifies how occupation and usage fees are calculated for public waters used by renewable energy facilities, particularly offshore wind. Currently, fees are calculated proportionally to adjacent land prices, creating excessive economic burden for offshore wind projects located in exclusive economic zones far from shore. The bill proposes to cap these fees at an amount calculated by multiplying the revenue generated from the facility's operation by a ratio to be set by presidential decree, aiming to reduce financial burden on renewable energy operators and promote clean energy deployment.

The current Act requires a person who intends to engage in acts such as the new construction or renovation of new and renewable energy facilities to obtain permission for occupancy or use of public waters, and requires the management agency of public waters to collect occupancy or use fees for public waters, while the Enforcement Decree of that Act provides that occupancy or use fees are calculated in proportion to the price of land adjacent to the relevant public waters.

However, in the case of offshore wind power generation, although public waters far from land, such as the exclusive economic zone, are occupied or used, occupancy or use fees are calculated in proportion to the price of land adjacent to the public waters, which causes the problem of reduced business feasibility due to an excessive economic burden; accordingly, it has been pointed out that there is a need to improve the method of calculating occupancy or use fees for public waters.

The first paragraphs of the bill's own statement, in KWI's English translation. The full statement and bill text are in the English translation PDF.

1. Received
2. In review
3. Enacted