South Korea has cut its 2030 renewable energy target from 30.2 percent to just 21.6 percent as it seeks to reduce subsidies for solar and other clean energy sources while preparing the country for more nuclear power and liquefied natural gas. The advocacy group is now challenging the plan in the Seoul Administrative Court.
Last week the group 24 NGOs archived to overturn the plan in the Seoul Administrative Court.
“The government said that the reduction target took into account the general acceptance and feasibility of renewable energy deployment,” Eunji Kim, A researcher from Seoul-based NGO Solutions for Our Climate said pv magazine.
According to Kim, the change acts as a signal to the market and affects the entire renewable energy market.
“When government goals and policies change dramatically from one government to another, the unpredictability creates unease among investors who would actively shy away from investing in clean energy companies and projects in a declining renewable energy industry ecosystem,” he added. “Furthermore, this makes it difficult to implement changes favorable to renewable energy sources.”
Kim said the South Korean government plans to ease its feed-in tariff policy and reduce the number of renewable energy certificates (RECs) issued under the Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (RPS) from 2023.
“The The size of the solar electricity offer under South Korea’s Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) system has been set 1000 MW – 50% less than the same time last year, when 2,000MW was reserved for each acquisition,” Kim said. “It looks like the problem of limiting renewable energy will only get worse with the latest plan to reduce the minimum output of fossil fuel power plants.”
South Korea’s energy agency organized two 4 GW solar tenders last year. In two tenders in 2021, it allocated capacity in rounds of 2 GW and 2.2 GW, and awarded 1.2 GW and 1.4 GW contracts in 2020. South Korea’s new power plan has added 2030 nuclear power target from 23.9% to 32.8% and liquefied natural gas (LNG) target from 19.5% to 20.9%.
