What RE100 means to Korea Recently, interest in renewable energy is rising once again as RE100 has become a hot topic.

 

What RE100 means to Korea Recently, interest in renewable energy is rising once again as RE100 has become a hot topic.

*RE100
Renewable Energy 100%.

An international campaign with the goal of providing 100% of the electricity used by companies with renewable energy such as wind and solar power by 2050.

It is a fact that many people, especially older people, overlook, but Korea is a country with a much larger economy and industrial size than expected, which ranks 7th in energy consumption and 7th in carbon emissions in the world.

Formation of the three major axes of the national development system

As you know, Korea is a country that is very short of raw materials in terms of energy supply.

Although it is not an oil-producing country and produces coal, it is mainly concentrated in North Korea in terms of resource distribution on the Korean Peninsula.

Of course, anthracite coal is stored in Gangwon-do, but it is mainly used for home heating such as briquettes.

For this reason, after liberation, as the North and South were divided and tensions continued, the main power generation facilities shifted to the North, and our country suffered a serious energy shortage for a while.

From the perspective of the state-led industrialization and industrial development since the 1950s, this energy shortage was a very serious problem.

In a modern country, industrial development goes hand in hand with energy demand, and if it cannot be sufficiently supplied, industrial promotion and industrial development become unattainable goals from the beginning.

For this reason, securing energy sources becomes the top priority for industrialization.

So, first of all, thermal power generation is started through the development of coal mines in Korea, but from the 1960s, it was switched to cheaper oil.

As a result, oil dependence reached 53.5% in 1972 and increased to 63.5% in 1978.

However, two oil shocks occurred in 1973 and 1979.

At that time, Korea imported almost all of its domestic crude oil from three countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iran.

In 1973, the first oil shock, the price of crude oil was 2.95 dollars per barrel, but in 1974 it rose 232% to 9.8 dollars, and 72% during the second oil shock.

In particular, in 1980, the amount of crude oil imported increased by 70% compared to 1979 despite a significant reduction in imports.

Given this situation, the impact on Korea, which was a newly industrialized country, was relatively greater than that of other countries.

In fact, the period of decline in economic growth was also longer and more painful than in advanced countries.

Having experienced a massive economic recession and inflation due to these two oil shocks, it is judged that it is very risky to rely on oil for the country's energy strategy.

 

 

This is because it was predicted that political conflicts would continue in the Middle East, from which we import oil, and this shock would continue.

As a result, attention is focused on the Kori Nuclear Power Plant, which began construction in 1971 and began operation in 1978.

Uranium, a raw material for nuclear power generation, can be easily obtained anywhere in the world, and once it starts operating, it can supply electricity stably.

From then on, we started to actively expand nuclear power plants in Gyeongsang-do and Jeolla-do.

At the same time, the search for other energy sources that can be supplied at a low cost has begun.

A representative example was LNG from Indonesia, which began exporting overseas in 1978.

Now, it has been pushed aside by Australia, Qatar, the United States, and Russia, but Indonesia was a country that emerged as an LNG exporter until the early 1990s, as it was ranked as the world's largest exporter of LNG.

In addition, until the mid-1980s, domestic coal production was maximally increased while partially substituting oil demand.

There are many implications that the period when domestic coal production was the highest was in 1986-88, when more than 24 million tons of coal was produced annually.

And with China's reform and opening-up, imports of Chinese-made bituminous coal took over the baton.

In this way, the three major axes of the domestic power generation system are to be formed: nuclear power generation, thermal power generation, and LNG combined cycle power generation.

In terms of regional distribution, it can be divided into nuclear power plants in Gyeongsang-do and Jeolla-do, thermal power plants in Chungcheong-do and Gangwon-do, and LNG combined cycle power plants in the metropolitan area.

Power stably produced through nuclear and thermal power generation is transmitted over long distances to industrial complexes, metropolitan areas, and large cities.

In other words, base power generation is used for long-distance transmission because the power transmission load is small because there is not much fluctuation in power generation, and peak power generation such as gas can apply a load to the power grid, so it is formed with a short distance.

The current method is to maximize the efficiency of generating and transmitting electricity through power generation by receiving a low-cost energy source.

*Base load power generation refers to power generation that produces electricity that is essential for society.

Peak load generation refers to generation to respond to the rapidly increasing demand for electricity.

What Net Zero and RE100 Mean for Korea However, the currently promoted Net Zero and RE100 completely destroy the efficiency of the existing power generation system.

This is because, unlike thermal power plants and nuclear power plants, which could be constructed and deployed according to their efficiency, renewable energy power plants are greatly affected by geography and the environment.

Wind power should be located in a windy area and solar power should be located in a sunny area

In other words, considering the transmission efficiency, it is difficult from the beginning to promote the lowest power unit price.

This in turn can easily cause a decrease in efficiency in transmission and load on the power grid.

In fact, this is why Energy Storage System (ESS) is an essential discussion in renewable energy.

When the ESS is properly equipped, it is possible to reduce the generation variability of renewable energy and supply electricity more stably.

 

However, fundamentally, Korea does not have a very good natural environment in terms of renewable energy production efficiency.

The variability of electricity demand in summer and winter is very high due to the extreme heat and cold. In summer, due to the rainy season and typhoons, the solar power generation efficiency decreases due to low sunlight, and the strong cold in winter freezes the wings of the wind turbine. It reduces power efficiency.

Considering this with Korea's huge energy consumption, it can be predicted that it will cost a lot to secure enough energy.

For this reason, it can be said that the road to Net Zero and RE100 is more difficult in Korea than in other countries.

Of course, there is no way.

It is indirectly recognized through the purchase of carbon credits and Renewable Energy Certificates (REC).

Among the companies that have achieved RE100, there are places like Apple that have achieved this through REC purchases, so the shortfall is to be filled through such certificates.

However, the concern in this case is that the most basic energy costs will rise, which will lead to higher commodity prices and inflation.

LNG, which is said to be the closest to green energy among fossil fuels right now, varies from time to time, but in general, the cost of power generation is about twice that of bituminous coal.

Converting thermal power to LNG also means that costs are very high.

Fossil fuels were imported in the cheapest way with low freight costs and it was possible to produce them at the lowest cost.

However, in the age of renewable energy, each country obtains energy sources from their own territories, so the unit cost of power generation for each country becomes higher than in the age of fossil fuels.

However, importing electricity produced in other countries is not surprising.

This is because our location is not in Europe connected by a community called the EU, but in a region of high tension surrounded by China, North Korea, Russia, and Japan.

After the 1973 and 1979 oil shocks, countries have come to understand very well that energy is a weapon.

Can we expect that China, an authoritarian country, will always provide us with a stable supply of electricity?

Net-Zero, RE100 is an unavoidable problem in the current global trend, and renewable energy must also be an area that we must do.

However, this conversion process will increase the cost significantly.

How the conversion cost will affect society is a problem that needs to be seriously considered and dealt with from now on.