KOREA: New and Renewable Energy – an overview

Korea plans to increase its supply of new and renewable energy to 5 percent of total energy supply by 2011. The background is that it is forced to cut its green house gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol from 2013. Investment in R & D will be concentrated on hydrogen/fuel cells, solar photovoltaic energy and wind energy, as well as other Renewable Energy sources, thought to be the most suitable ways of generating electricity in the future, Innovation Norway’s office in Seoul reports.

The current international market for new and renewable energy is growing by 20~30% annually to become one of the most cutting-edge industries of this century. On top of this, Korea will have to cut the amount of greenhouse gases produced between 2013 and 2017, the 2nd public pledge period according to the Kyoto Protocol to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1997. Considering the given obligation, the development and application of new and renewable energy is an urgent demand.

Total primary energy comsumption in Korea stood at 231.5 million TOE in 2006 which was ranked as the tenth-largest energy consuming country in the world. However, Korea has to rely almost entirely on imports to meet its energy needs due to poor indigenous energy resources. The dependency rate on imported energy, including nuclear energy, was 96.8 percent in 2006.

Goal for new and renewable energy
The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy has entered into its 2nd phase of the primary plan for “New and Renewable Energy Development and Deployment” from 2003 to 2012. According to this plan, the total supply of new and renewable energy by 2011 should reach 5% to cope with OECD goal, which is 4.9% by 2010.

The objectives of this plan are:
 To establish goals for new and renewable energy technology in consideration of the present level of technology, available funds and potential for utilization.

 To designate priority R&D areas and expand infrastructure programs.

 To promote commercialization and deployment.

Approximately 6 billion USD (9.1 billion USD including loans) will be required during the period to achieve the goal of supplying 5 percent of total energy consumption with new and renewable energy sources by 2011.

As most new and renewable forms of energy are not economically viable as compared with traditional energy sources, it is necessary to maintain an appropriate level of financial support (feed-in-tariff, subsidies for installations) in order to expand their deployment. Strategic variation in financial support would depend on the potential for commercialization and the technological advance represented by the individual new and renewable energy form.

Waste and water high priority areas
Waste energy is taking the majority of 76%, and water energy 16% out of all new and renewable energy generated in Korea. It can be divided into electricity and thermal energy, and currently 98% of total renewable energy is thermal, which suggests a need for faster development in electricity generation technology.

Thus, Korea is planning on pouring concentrated investment into three high-priority areas – hydrogen / fuel cells, photovoltaic energy, and wind energy fields, which are thought to be the most suitable ways of generating electricity in Korea’s circumstances.

Main R&D activities
Hydrogen / Fuel Cell
 Monitoring a residential housing fuel cell project (210 units using 1kW class cells)
 Equipping and monitoring 30 passenger cars with 80kW class cells and 4 buses with 200kW class cells
 Demonstration of a 250kW molten-carbonate fuel-cell
 A test run of 30Nß©/hr H2 fueling station to monitor production and storage of mass-hydrogen
 Demonstration of a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel-cell system (1kW to 3kW, 5kw)

Photovoltaic
 Construction of a 10MWp pilot plant using single crystalline silicon wafers
 Construction of a 30MWp plant using crystalline silicon solar cells
 Construction of a 1MW research site using a photovoltaic power system for demonstration purposes

Wind Power
 Demonstrating 1.5MW on-shore wind power systems
 Developing 2-3MW geared-type wind power systems
 Developing converter systems for large-scale (2MW) wind power systems

Bio-energy
 Demonstrating anaerobic digestion technology to produce bio-gas from farming waste water. (20 tons/day)
 Developing technology to produce bio-diesel in batch process. (6,000 tons/year)
 Developing technology to produce wood pellets from waste forest products. (500,000 kcal/hr)

Solar Thermal
 Demonstrating a 10kW dish-type power system to promote utilization of solar thermal energy
 Developing single evacuated solar thermal collector
 Demonstrating 10RT solar-assisted absorption cooling system

Waste Energy
 Operating facilities to produce Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF, 40 tons/day)
 Promoting technology to pyrolyze tire waste/plastic waste (1,000 tons to 3,000 tons/year)

Geothermal Energy
 Developing the world’s first steel case pile heat exchanger (30 percent rise in efficiency compared with existing vertical ground heat exchangers)
 Localization of core technology to produce a high-efficiency geothermal heat pump with load-following capability. (50RT oil-free turbo compressor)
 Demonstrating air conditioning and heating system using an open-loop type geothermal heat pump. (Two-well type 50RT, standing column well-type 120RT)

Hydropower
 Demonstrating the Francis-type hydro-turbine system. (Comparison with four existing hydro power plants)
 Developing 50kW-class hydro-power system using differential water pressures in city water.

Tidal Energy
 Developing design technology to construct commercial tidal power plant.
 Developing/demonstrating 100kW-class tidal current and wave energy converters.

Opportunities from collaboration
With all the investment planned in the public sector and the private sector, it is an opportunity for overseas companies to join the Korean market. The technology level of the renewable energy industry is still 50 to 60 percent of that of leading countries.

Korea will invest in developing technology in order to achieve the goal of supplying 5 percent of total energy consumption with new and renewable energy sources by 2011. While doing so, it is absolutely necessary for Korean companies to collaborate with other technological leaders. It should be a great chance for them to make profits. As the same time, it will be a good market for buyers to browse over the newest trends in the field and import the technology.