Presidential candidate Moon Jae-in speaks about steps to reduce fine dust at a meeting at the Minju Party of Korea headquarters on April 13.

The government is expected to accelerate efforts to secure sites to build new and renewable energy power plants. 

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) convened a meeting with experts from industry, academia and research circles and civic organizations at the Coal Center in Seoul on June 29 to discuss ways of raising the portion of new and renewable energies in power generation to up to 20 percent by 2030. 

In order to attain the 20 percent goal of new and renewable energies in power generation, new power facilities with a combined capacity of 53GW are required to be built, and the supply of photovoltaic power and wind power needs to be elevated to 80 percent to achieve a power grid mix similar to that of advanced countries, according to a report put together for the meeting. 

Participants shared the view that dramatic steps should be taken to supply an additional annual average capacity of 2GW more than the current supply trend of averaging 1.7GW annually. 

To this end, the participants also shared the need for inter-ministry extraordinary steps to eliminate chronic bottlenecks like a difficulty in securing sites and residents’ complaints and grievances. 

In order to obtain enough sites to build new and renewable energy plants, they demanded that local autonomous authorities should revamp regulations on clearance. They also called for the institution of a system of planning new and renewable energy sites and coming up with ideas on how to solve problems related to public acceptance. For instance, reclaimed land inappropriate for farming due to residual salt, idle land and land with limited farming ought to be utilized. 

Public entities are required to promote mega projects to build large-size new and renewable energy complexes like photovoltaic power and wind plants. The participants also stressed the need for the strengthening of competitiveness though conducting R&D activities, verification, and the creation of demand to create jobs in the new and renewable energy sectors, nurturing the industrial ecosystem, supporting exports, and offering tax reductions. 

The government plans to form and operate a subcommittee on four issues regulatory reform, public acceptance, district/public entity, and job creation/industry. It plans to establish by the end of August at the latest a plan to implement the vision, dubbed, “2030 New and Renewables,” calling for raising the portion of new and renewable energies in power generation to up to 20 percent by 2030.

Deputy Minister Kim Hak-do of the Office of Energy and Resources at the MOTIE emphasized that the most important task of dramatically increasing the supply of new and renewable energies is to raise public acceptance and secure sites. Residents are encouraged to directly and indirectly participate in the implementation of new and renewable projects as stock stakeholders, and an environment in which it is conducive to residents’ interests will be created, while rural success story practices of photovoltaic power projects involving residents’ participating will be created and shared to promote the supply of new and renewable energies. 

A bird-eye view of a photovoltaic power plant with a small wind power facility being built by the Suwon municipal government at a youth and culture park in Ingae-dong, Suwon, Gyeonggi-do.