Korea’s Ambitious Plan to Grow Renewables

South Korea’s government has already drafted up an ambitious plan to grow the renewable energy sector in the country. Now officials have announced that they were going to up their goal once more. The country is planning to use 20 percent renewable energy by 2030, according to the current power supply plan. A renewed plan is going to include the goal of 35 percent renewables by 2040, according to Reuters.

Looking at past energy use in Korea, coal and nuclear energy have been the mainstays of Korean electricity generation. Korea has long been one of the world’s most prominent users of nuclear energy, but the current administration under president Moon Jae-in has decided to phase the technology out by 2057 because of concerns over the safety of nuclear power after the Fukushima incident in neighboring Japan. Concerns that more coal power could be used and that that could cause to more pollution led to a public outcry.

Now, the Moon administration is fighting on two fronts against coal and nuclear. Simply growing the renewable energy sector as it is will not suffice either. In Korea, it has consisted of around 60 percent waste-to-energy burning in recent years, a renewable energy source which is not free from carbon emissions.