With the countries all over the world developing their wind energy potential, South Korea has also joined the trend by initiating a massive wind energy program that is expected to relieve the country of its huge fossil fuel imports that currently energize the country.
South Korea has recently realized the vast wind reserves which has been given priority in the country’s renewable energy revolution. A recently published research report by Kuick Research has pointed out that the country holds one of the world’s largest wind resources with wind speeds in the higher limit.
The report details that South Korea has potential wind reserves of more than 340 TWh of which close to 100 TWh is onshore and a whopping 243 TWh is offshore. This indicates towards huge offshore wind energy potential that the administration has just beginning to tap.
Another reason for the country to move offshore was because of the limited land available for wind farm development. The report gives detailed wind map studies with the wind speeds much faster than that required for power generation.
The Feed in Tariff policy of the government has now been replaced by the Renewable Portfolio Standard. The research report points out the various reasons behind this reform one of which was the low revenue given to wind generated electricity as compared to solar and hydro power.
The country is currently in the process of developing the world’s largest offshore wind farm with capacity of 2.5 GW expected to be operational by 2019. A consortium of government and private companies being led by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy is developing this ambitious project that will catapult the country’s wind energy to levels at par with many countries in the world.
United Kingdom’s RenewableUK has joined hands with the Korea Wind Energy Association to augment South Korea’s efforts of wind energy development through a 3 phase project called the UK-Korea Ocean Energy Technology Project, the first of which will be a detailed study of the country’s offshore wind resources and the subsequent phases to be determined on the results of the study.
The research study shows that the government has already committed KRW 373.7 Billion in renewable energy development in 2012 and gives further details of this money being invested in various projects to help the country reach its target of including 10% power generated from renewable energy by 2022.
The report also lists the various quotas of electricity produced by renewable sources of energy that will need to be included by the utility companies as part of the new Renewable Portfolio Standard policy.
South Korea heavy industry companies are augmenting the government’s efforts by facilitating the availability of wind turbines by locally manufacturing them so that the companies do not have to import the equipment and the cost of wind power can be reduced. The report gives details of the wind turbine portfolio of all the companies involved.
The research report is a detailed text that emphasizes on the bright future of wind energy in South Korea. It gives details to all the necessary facets required to bring about an organized wind power growth. The report details the targets and gives precise plans of the government to achieve these ambitious renewable energy targets and how exactly the country will go about the Low Carbon Green Growth Policy in the coming years to develop its most abundant resource.
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Press release, September 9, 2012; Image: Bard Offshore