Giving a speech at an economic summit in Saemangeum, South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced a watershed moment for the nation’s renewable energy policy.
Mr. Moon said he wants to turn the 409km2 of reclaimed land at Saemangeum into the country's renewable energy hub. To that end, the government plans to funnel 10 trillion Korean won ($8.8 billion) into the development of a “mega-scale” solar and wind complex with a 4 GW generation capacity. The plan includes a 3 GW solar park, which would be the world's largest. President Moon said the solar PV site should be commissioned by 2022.
“One of the world’s biggest solar energy and offshore wind energy generation facilities will be built in the Saemangeum area,” said President Moon, visiting the region for the second time since his inauguration. “The renewable energy production in this area will be a turning point for Korea’s renewable energy business that will foster the nation’s competitiveness in the field.”
South Korea wants to generate 20% of its power from renewables by 2030. The country is working on installing 30.8 GW of solar PV by that date, with 9% of that capacity to be developed in Saemangeum.
Korean clean energy figures are ‘shameful’
“The sun of Saemangeum becomes the driving force of the development of the Republic of Korea. The breeze of Saemangeum will be a resource to open the future,” president Moon said.
The head of state admitted his country is lagging OECD standards for renewable energy generation, with the 8% share of energy provided by renewables in Korea comparing badly with the 25%, on average, generated by its peers – a figure he labelled “shameful”.
The Korean president said, during his last visit to Denmark he learned the northern European nation's wind industry accounts for 8.5% of total exports and employs more than 33,000 people, and mentioned his ambition for Korea to emulate such figures.
Saemangeum signs big RE deals
The Korean government reportedly wants to attract renewable energy businesses to invest in the free trade area, which the Seoul administration hopes to turn into a significant economic hub for northeast Asia. Saemangeum, which was reclaimed from the sea, offers generous tax breaks for companies which decide to establish production facilities there.
In September, the Saemangeum Development and Investment Agency (SDIA) announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Rena International for the investment of KRW55.5 billion, for the construction of a module assembly factory and storage system manufacturing plant. The project is expected to generate 120 jobs.
The SDIA also closed an MoU with NemoENG for the investment of KRW47.5 billion, to establish a production site for the company's floating and mooring PV systems at Saemangeum.
This story was updated at 0930 (CET) on 02/11/18 with a new image as the previous image was not of President Moon.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
The photo is not of the Korean President 🙂
Please see the note on the next comment.
The photo is not correct. The person is not the ROK President Moon, but Mr. Chung Eui-yong, the Director of the Korean National Security Council.
Thank you for pointing out the error, hopefully we now have an image of President Moon. The president and Mr. Chung can rest assured that the pv magazine employee responsible – Max Hall – will receive a stern talking-to.
“Saemangeum is an estuarine tidal flat on the coast of the Yellow Sea in South Korea. It was dammed by the government of South Korea’s Saemangeum Seawall Project, completed in April 27, 2010, after a long fight between the government and environmental activists, and is scheduled to be converted into either agricultural or industrial land. Prior to 2010, it had played an important role as a habitat for migratory birds. The completion of this seawall is likely to be a major contributor to the decline of many species. Around 400,000 shorebirds depended on the Saemangeum estuarine as an important feeding ground on the 24,000 km migration between Asia and Alaska and Russia,[1] including the two endangered waders Nordmann’s greenshank and spoon-billed sandpiper (each species with fewer than a thousand surviving birds).[2] A conservation organisation has accused authorities of having failed to monitor the project’s impact on local wildlife in a transparent way, and carried out an independent monitoring program in 2006.
The Saemangeum lay at the mouths of the Dongjin and Mangyeong Rivers, on the coast of Jeollabuk-do. It is just south of the estuary of the Geum River. Neighboring districts include Gunsan City, Buan County, and Gimje City.
The project of filling in the estuary began in 1991, but was slowed by a series of court actions by environmentalists. The completed seawall is some 33 kilometers long, and replaces a coastline that was once more than 100 kilometers long. After the estuary has been completely filled, an area of about 400 km2 (roughly two-thirds the size of Seoul) will have been added to the Korean peninsula, making it one of the biggest land reclamation projects in history.[3] ” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saemangeum