super grid in north-east asia through in 1980, increased more than six-fold

Dr. Jinsoo Song to 275.7 million toe in 2011. Republic Senior Research Fellow of KIER (Korea Institute of Korea became the 10th largest energy of Energy Research), consuming country in the world. Energy President of KPVS (Korea Photovoltaic Society), consumption per capita in the ­Republic 151 Gajeong-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Republic of Korea of Korea also increased rapidly from Tel: +82-42-860-3738 1.1 toe in 1980 to 5.1 toe in 2011. But E-mail: [email protected] its energy resources are limited to low- quality anthracite with small amount, Abstract which accounted for less than one per- Objectives of is to construct large scale renewable power plants and trans- cent of total primary energy supply. With mission network in Gobi desert for sharing generated electricity with neighboring poor indigenous energy resources, the countries in North-East Asia. In addition, the driving force for Republic of Korea is Republic of Korea has to import almost the need for energy independence, moving away from the dependence on fossil fuel entire required energy. The dependency import and plant. Currently moving from the price-feasibility to fea- on imported energy was 96.4 percent sibility study, the challenge is to build consensus among the participating countries in 2011 and the cost of energy import and stakeholders. amounted to US$ 1,725 billion, which accounted for 32.9 percent of total in- bound shipments. Introduction later than other advanced countries, it Oil Demand of Republic of Korea is expected that the industry would be a nergy remains as the key driver of has been growing rapidly since 1970s, national growth engine in the near future social and economic development except the two oil crises period of E as the Korean government has made maxi- at national and international level. The 1973 and 1979. demand has also mum efforts to support renewable energy energy demand is growing very fast. To increased by annual average increasing technology development and deploy- meet such high energy demand without rate of 5.2 percent for the past 30 years, ment in order to realize Green Growth. damaging the environment, significant due to the large amount of industrial Significant technology advances and increase in the share of renewable ener- use including power generation. But dramatic cost reductions have been gy among all kinds of energy resources the main use of domestic anthracite has achieved in renewable energy over last is happening. been shifted dramatically from residen- decade in the Republic of Korea. It is It is very fortunate that many of devel- tial sector to industrial sector. Natural clear that supporting high level research oping countries in Asia and Africa have gas was imported from 1986 in the form and facilitating exchange of information abundant resources of , low- of LNG and it accounted for 17 percent and experiences are crucial. If renewable cost desert and arid land. Wider utilization of the primary energy consumption in energy technologies are to be continu- of renewable energy should provide the 2011. ally expanded, its costs would reduce. foundation for not only reliable energy Energy conservation and efficiency Technology cost reduction can be real- supply, but it may also bring renais- policies for reducing energy consumption ized through the active collaboration of sance in the development of energy in aim at all components of energy system all stakeholders on local, regional, and developing countries. It can significantly ranging from primary energy production global level. contribute to enhancing their social and to end-use. In public procurement, the economic development. government gives preference to com- Renewable energy is becoming more Status of renewable energy in modities produced using clean energy important in the Republic of Korea with Republic of Korea technology. Despite nationwide efforts rapidly changing domestic business Because of rapid economic growth ac- by the government to encourage energy environment due to frequent fluctua- celerated by the heavy and chemical in- conservation and energy efficiency, tion of international price dustries, the Republic of Korea’s energy increasing demand of energy is expected and UN framework convention on climate consumption has increased rapidly since to persist in the future due to the rapid change. the mid-1970s. Total primary energy growth of national economy. Though Republic of Korea has started consumption (TPES), which stood at At the end of 2011, the amount of to focus on renewable energy industry 43.9 million tons of oil equivalent (toe) new and renewable energy (NRE) ­supply

24 TECH MONITOR • Jan-Mar 2014 Super grid in North-East Asia through renewable energy was 7,583,000 toe, which comprised 2.75 percent of the total primary energy ­consumption, 275,688,000 toe. Of the total supply of NRE, waste utilization contributed the largest proportion with 67.54 percent, followed by hydro power with 12.73 percent, and other types of renewable energy with 19.73 percent. NRE power generation has also increased rapidly, PV and wind, in particular. In terms of PV, power generation has increased nearly 30 times to 917,198 Mwh in 2011 from 31,022 Mwh in 2006, and wind has Figure 1: Energy Consumption in Republic of Korea Source: Korea Energy Management Corporation, Nov. 2012 increased to 862,884 Mwh from 238,911 Mwh. Fuel cell appeared as an electric- ity source in 2006 and its output in 2010 industries into a new growth engine for by resources as of 2011 was 98 PV com- was almost 44 times higher than that of the Korean economy. panies, 48 bio-energy companies, and 38 2006, achieving 294,621 Mwh. Total NRE The background of basic plan is as wind companies. power generation accounted for 17,345 ­follows: The number of employees in the GWh which is about 1.24 percent of total NRE industries has increased from 3,691 l It divides into the fields of NRE focus- 501,527 Gwh of electricity generated in employees in 2007 to 17,161 in 2011. It is ing on accomplishment of the supply 2011 (Figure 1). an increase of 4.6 times with the annual and R&D activities and suggests sup- According to the statistics of the OECD, growth rate of 92 percent. As PV and wind ply goals with concrete standards to annual average growth rate of renewable power industries are expected to become meet international trends and domes- energy by 6.8 percent in the Republic of a core growth engine for the future, the tic goals; Korea was 14th among OECD countries employment effect will also be significant during 2008–2011, but in 2011, the pen- l The fundamental direction of the in these fields. etration rate of 1.6 percent was ranked plan is to classify renewable energy The sales of the NRE industries have the lowest among the OECD countries. sources into deployment-oriented increased from US$ 1.25 billion in 2007 to The average of technical standard is 86.2 groups: wind, bio-energy, waste and US$ 14.5 billion with an increase of 14.5 percent compared to Europe countries, geothermal; times, and the export sales have increased which is about 10 percent lower than l R&D-oriented group: PV, hydrogen and from US$ 0.78 billion in 2007 to US$ 8.42 Japan and about five percent higher fuel cell; and billion in 2011 with an increase of 79.5 than China. It must invigorate the sys- l Responding to the and times (Figure 2). tem export-oriented business model to exhaustion of fossil fuels. As an effort to improve the energy sup- overcome the gap between these tech- ply and demand condition and to promote nologies and price competitiveness and According to the Business As Usual the development of regional economies weakness of domestic foundation mar- (BAU) scenario of the basic plan, the by supplying region specific NRE that are ket. Especially in order to improve the NRE share of primary energy supply will environment-friendly, the government share of renewable energy technology account for 3.6 percent in 2015, 4.2 per- has been promoting regional deploy- in global market, it must be performed cent in 2020 and 5.7 percent in 2030, and ment subsidy program designed to sup- not only to strengthen price competitive- by the target scenario, the NRE share of port various projects carried out by local ness and technology deployment but primary energy supply will account for 4.3 governments. also implementation of the Super Grid percent in 2015, 6.1 percent in 2020 and The government provides subsidy for technologies for the expansion of appli- 11 percent in 2030. NRE facility users to accelerate NRE deploy- cation and development of new utiliza- Achievement of renewable energy in ment. The objective of the subsidy program tion technology. each area from 2007 to 2011 has been is to create an initial market for new tech- The third basic plan for NRE technol- increased sharply. nologies and systems developed domes- ogy development and deployment estab- The number of manufacturing compa- tically, and to establish and activate the lished in December 2008, which handles nies in the NRE industries in the Republic deployment infrastructure for technology Republic of Korea’s medium-long term of Korea has increased from 100 in 2007 and equipment commercialization. These target for NRE development and deploy- to 224 in 2011. It means it has increased subsidies are classified into two categories: ment, provides action plans and basic 224 percent with an annual growth rate (1) test-period deployment subsidy, and strategies. It aims at facilitating the NRE of 45 percent. The number of companies (2) the general deployment subsidy. The

TECH MONITOR • Jan-Mar 2014 25 Super grid in North-East Asia through renewable energy

power system with one of the North-East Asian countries (Figure 3). The historical background of interna- tional cooperation on renewable energy begins in 1995. Since 1995, Republic of Korea-Japan and Republic of ­Korea-China have been holding a joint seminar on renewable energy among North-East Asian countries. A joint forum on renew- able energy (RE) was held in Seoul, and Figure 2: Achievement of NRE in Republic of Korea an International RE Conference and Exhi- Source: Green Growth Korea, June, 2012 bition took place in Busan in 2003. Also, government provides the subsidy up to 50 out joint research projects development, Asia-Pacific Forum on RE (AFORE) and percent of installation cost for commerciali- ­inter-governmental collaboration com- Global Photovoltaic Conference (GPVC) zation of these systems. mittees are organized. were held in 2011. NE Asia Consortium for Many joint seminars have been organ- Super Grid in Gobi desert was launched in 2012. AFORE is a regular event which International cooperation with ized to build up relations with those coun- began in 2008, and the main topics of the North-East Asian countries tries by exchanging current key policies forum are renewable energy in terms of and technological information in various Renewable energy has been currently policy and strategy, technology toward areas such as PV, wind energy, solar ther- considered as an effective mean for the low carbon sustainable society, but not mal, and . With regard to follow up climate change protection as well as ma- limited to these topics only. actions for these partnerships, this would jor driving force for sustainable economic Symposium on Super Grid was held be a great opportunity to identify benefi- growth. Recognizing such importance of in 2012. Four countries such as ­Republic cial areas in the field of NRE. renewable energy, the Korean govern- of Korea, China, Japan, and Mongolia In order to construct Super Grid in Gobi ment has been involving in a variety of have agreed for establishment of con- desert, promotion of international coop- international cooperation activities with sortium for Super Grid in NE Asia and international organization and various eration, establishment of cooperation net- signed at this symposium. Joint seminar overseas counterparts. work among North-East Asian countries is and ­cooperation plan were discussed on The Government has maintained required. However, ­North-East (NE) Asian ­February 2013. close relations with neighboring coun- countries show many differences in the During the international joint work- tries in North-east countries, mainly frequency and transmission voltage of shop on Super Grid, a consortium and a China, Japan, and Mongolian organi- electricity as well as power consumption working group were composed with rep- zations to exchange information and amount and power generation capacity. resentatives of each four NE Asia countries develop collaborative programs. In Because of the poor power status and in March 2013 and ADB financial support order to promote cooperative programs, the size of the economy, North Korea and proposal was completed at a round table joint seminars, business matchmaking, ­Mongolia, especially, would require Super discussion for Asian Super Grid which was cooperation agreements and to carry Grid immediately for interconnection to held in Seoul in May 2013. The consortium will have a steering committee consisting of four member countries such as Republic of Korea, China, Japan, and Mongolia and a work- ing group will consist of representative experts of each technical areas from member ­countries and relevant interna- tional institutions such as IEA/PVPS, IRENA, ADB, as observers. For the promotion of the Super Grid, the Republic of Korea is running the dem- onstration test through operating super- visory control system with IT ­technology. Figure 3: Super Grid in North-East Asia China constructed Super Grid on the basis Source: J. Song : International Conference on of demonstration experiences of large- RE cooperation & Grid integration in NE Asia, Nov. 2012 scale PV, wind farm, HVDC, etc., and Japan

26 TECH MONITOR • Jan-Mar 2014 Super grid in North-East Asia through renewable energy developed a proposal of business model ability, (2) Developing implementation the perception of general public and utilities, based on mega solar project including Asia road map with action plan with member local, national and international policies, as Super Grid Plan after Fukushima nuclear disas- countries, and (3) To develop managing well as the availability of suitable standards ter. Mongolia ­established monitoring centers rules and organizations needed. and codes to govern it. at Super Grid ­candidate area to measure and The VLS-PV systems can play an impor- In long term period with a solid strat- collect whether data collection. tant role as well as wind farms for clean egy for implementing Super Grid in desert The main concept of Super Grid is and safe power generation. At present, area, further expansion of large scale related to electricity transmission system, a practical project proposal for “Super renewable power generation can provide based on HVDC, designed to facilitate Grid in Gobi desert” has been proposed increasing energy demand of the North- large scale sustainable power genera- to raise funds for a feasibility study, and East Asian region in a sustainable way. In tion in desert area for transmission to the the study will implement site selection, addition, diffusion of the various kinds of center area of consumption. field test and demonstration, economic high-tech knowledge and experiences, Core Technologies of Super Grid are as and socio-­environmental effects analysis, know-how will be transferred to local follows: (1) Large scale RE power genera- among others. renewable energy institutes, utilities and tion in Gobi desert, (2) IT, WAMS, ESS, HVDC, energy companies in order to keep track and (3) Electricity transmission. Expected Conclusion of worldwide technology developments, effects of Super Grid through the inter- In the near future, renewable energy should technology exchange between universi- national cooperation in North-East Asia become an economically viable option to ties and scientific institutes in North-East countries are technical benefits, economic meet the electricity needs of communities Asian region countries. benefits, social benefits and environmen- in remote or mountainous regions around To realize our dream, we must try to tal benefits. The key challenges could be the world where conventional power plants build consensus with convergence, inte- the following: (1) Consensus among par- cannot be built. The rate of deployment of gration and harmonization based on ticipating countries and system sustain- renewable energy is greatly influenced by neighborhood. n

Recent Publications from IRENA Renewable Energy Country Profiles for Asia The latest volume in the IRENA Renewable Energy Country Profiles series covers Asia, with profiles for Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, the Republic of Korea, Kyrgyzstan, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, the Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Viet Nam. IRENA Renewable Energy Country Profiles take stock of the latest developments in the field of re- newables at country level around the world. Each profile combines analysis by IRENA’s specialists with the latest available country data and additional information from a wide array of sources. The resulting reports provide a brief yet comprehensive picture of the situation with regard to renewable energy, including energy supply, electrical generation and grid capacity, and access. Renewables Readiness Assessment: Design to Action The Renewables Readiness Assessment (RRA) is a comprehensive tool for assessing the conditions existing in a country for the devel- opment and deployment of renewable energy, along with the actions required to improve those conditions. Designed and refined by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) since 2011, the RRA is a country-initiated, country-led process that identifies short- to medium-term actions for the rapid scale-up of renewables. Smart Grids and Renewables: A Guide for Effective Deployment The steady growth of renewable energy technologies and cost-competitiveness of solar and call for a smarter approach to power-grid management. This working paper from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) provides a technical overview of smart-grid technologies as a way to accommodate larger shares of renewable energy in the electricity sector. Smart Grids and Renewables: A Guide for Effective Deployment finds that:

• Smart-grid technologies are already deployed cost-effectively in many instances today, enabling higher penetration of renewable energy sources. • Policies and regulations need to be developed for smart grids and renewable energy sources as soon as, if not before, large-scale deployment takes off. For more information, contact: International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) CI Tower, Khalidiyah (32nd) Street, PO Box 236 Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Tel : +971-2-4179000 Web: http://www.irena.org

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