South Korea aims to increase the share of renewables in its electricity mix from about 7% today to 20% by 2030 and 30-35% by 2040. But in such a densely populated country, with little unused land and no interconnections, where will the 48GW of green power needed by 2030 come from?
Energy consultant Heejip Kim, chairman of the South Korean government’s New Industry Deregulation Committee, tells Recharge that a generous offshore wind policy — in which developers can earn almost $300 per MWh — and a major ramp-up of utility-scale solar will replace coal and the previously planned nuclear expansion, although talk of a Korean “hydrogen economy” may be premature.
