Tag: solar energy

This is not a renewable energy issue, this is more an issue of government picking winners and losers and people in the government benefiting from the winners they chose:

A total of 251 officials at public institutions were found to have taken part in solar panel businesses to make money in violation of ethics regulations during the previous Moon Jae-in administration, the state audit agency said Tuesday.

The officials from eight institutions, including the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO), ran solar panel businesses either under their own names or under the names of relatives, according to the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI).

During the Moon administration, solar power was considered not only as clean and environmentally friendly energy but also as a potentially lucrative investment opportunity, with stability and long-term prospects supported by strong government backing.

An example includes a KEPCO official who operated six solar power stations under the names of relatives after using insider information, reaping a combined profit of 880 million won (US$662,000), the BAI said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It will be interesting to see if South Korea’s farm fields start getting covered in solar panels or not based on this research:

A solar panel array is installed at a green onion farm of Yeungnam University’s agrivoltaics demonstration complex in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province, Wednesday. Courtesy of Hanwha Solutions

Seasoned green onions served at a cafeteria in Yeungnam University last Wednesday were no different from those made with ingredients from ordinary farms. However, these ones did differ in one major way: They were grown under solar panels installed at the university’s agrivoltaics demonstration complex.

Hanwha Solutions Q Cells Division, which hosted a media briefing at the university on dual land use for agriculture and solar power generation, dismissed any safety concerns regarding the crops from the complex.

“Our solar modules use eco-friendly wires that do not contain lead,” said Hong Sung-min, an employee at the solar module manufacturing unit of Hanwha Group.

Yeungnam University professor Jung Jae-hak, who is leading experiments at the complex, told the press that solar panels do not pollute the soil with heavy metals.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is an interesting read in the Korea Times about how solar energy farms in South Korea are destroying the environment and impacting the livelihood of farmers:

Thousands of solar energy facilities have been built in rural mountainous regions in recent years, in line with a government policy to increase the ratio of renewable energy sources in the country’s energy mix. 

However, many of them have become danger zones as the removal of trees for their construction has heightened the possibility of landslides, becoming a major headache for local residents during the nation’s annual rainy season. What is of more concern is that the installations are feared to end up destroying the landscape and environment through massive deforestation.

Seokdong Village in Gangjin County, South Jeolla Province, is one such village, where over 25,400 square meters of forest there were cut down to install solar panels in 2016. 

But since then, soil has been washed away from the facilities during each summer’s rainy season, and in July this year two meters of stone embankments and 20 meters of barbed wire fencing collapsed.

“As the rain poured in July, the solar facilities collapsed and the village’s rice paddies were completely flooded. Fortunately, nobody was on site and hurt but if there had been, it would have caused many casualties,” Lim Jun-hyung, the village head, told The Korea Times, Friday. “The company that installed the panels won’t come to fix it for months, no matter how many times we call them. I can’t even stand the sight of those panels now.” 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but what is ironic is that the Korean government is blaming global warming for the flooding and not the fact that huge swaths of forest were cut down to put in these solar farms. I also find it interesting that these farmers are not protesting and blockading these solar farms like the farmers blockading the THAAD site are which has done absolutely nothing to their crops.

By the way I am actually impressed the Korea Times actually published an article like this critical of solar farms. Generally it seems the media doesn’t want to report anything negative about green energy projects.

It will be interesting to see if President Park’s solar initiatives goes anywhere:

Hanwha Group, the world’s largest solar cell maker, said it plans to open the nation’s first zero-carbon town run solely on solar power on Jukdo Island, a small island on the nation’s west coast, in cooperation with small and medium-sized enterprises in the solar industry. 

This will be a signature project for the South Chungcheong Creative Economy Innovation Center, which Hanwha Group jointly opened with the central government in Cheonan, South Chungcheong, on Friday. 

The South Chungcheong center is the nation’s 11th creative economy center out of a total of 17 planned under President Park Geun-hye’s creative economy initiative, the administration’s attempt to revitalize Korea’s economy through innovation. 

More than 150 people including President Park, Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn and South Chungcheong Gov. Ahn Hee-jung attended the center’s opening. 

“In the 20th century, Korea used to rely on imports for 100 percent of its energy needs,” said Park in a congratulatory speech. “The era of fossil fuels coming to the end is a challenge but also can be an opportunity for the Korean economy. 
“If we move proactively in new energy-related technologies and commercialize them as soon as possible, the Korean solar-energy model will lead the world’s renewable energy market,” Park added.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.