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Jeju to be carbon free by 2030Smart Grid to generate jobs, annual revenue in the trillions
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½ÂÀÎ 2012.06.25  10:53:30
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¡ã Left, Lee Ji Hoon and Kang Si Cheol of the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province Smart Grid Division. Photo by Darryl Coote

The Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, in conjunction with the central government, has announced its “Carbon Free Island Jeju by 2030” plan which aims to make the island carbon free and self-sustainable through renewable energy resources by 2030.

According to the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province Smart Grid Division, the government body responsible for the implementation of this plan, the “Carbon Free Island Jeju by 2030” project will be executed in three steps: first, Gapado will become a carbon free island and a model for the rest of Jeju by this September. Second, by 2020 Jeju will run on 50 percent renewable energy. And thirdly, by 2030 all of Jeju will be 100 percent carbon free.

“By 2020 Jeju’s goal is [50] percent of all its energy will be renewable,” said Lee Ji Hoon of the Smart Grid Division. “By 2030, 100 percent of [the island’s] energy will be renewable [and] the government hopes that Gapado will be a model.”

The small island of Gapado off Jeju’s southern coast is currently being converted into a carbon free island and will be used as a guide for the rest of the province. It is set to be 100 percent carbon free, including all cars to be replaced with electric vehicles, for the upcoming International Union for Conservation of Nature World Conservation Congress this September.

Currently only 7 percent of Gapado’s energy comes from solar panels, the island’s sole renewable resource. With the completion of two 250 kilowatt wind facilities this summer at a cost of 10 billion won (US$8.6 million) the Smart Grid Division says that these new power sources will supply more than 90 percent of the island’s energy.

According to a provincial government press release this plan is in line with Jeju Governor Woo Keun Min’s agenda to pursue renewable resources and advance the Smart Grid industry to act as a “future growth engine” not only for the island but for the entire nation.

The plan will replace all fossil fuels through utilizing wind via land and sea turbines, solar energy, and electrical storage facilities. All vehicles will be replaced with electric vehicles, even those used for farming and fishing but these will be gradually introduced, reads the press release.

By 2020, the Smart Grid Division projects that 68 percent of Jeju’s energy needs will be supplied through sea wind turbines (1 gigawatt), land wind turbines (300 megawatts), and solar panels (30 megawatts).

By 2030, over 124 percent of Jeju’s power needs will be produce through renewable resources.

As a part of this project Gapado’s water supply will come from a desalination plant, which Smart Grid Division Director Kang Si Cheol said, will not only act as a model for the rest of the province, but will become one of Jeju’s largest sources of revenue.

“The whole project is the convergence of energy and water,” Kang said, adding, “We are consuming the underground water, the government is planning to export it [to the mainland and overseas].”

This project will have a ripple effect of generating 13.5 trillion won ($11.6 billion) for the province, and will directly bring in 5.8 trillion won ($5 billion) annually.

The purpose of this central government initiative, said Kang, is to ensure that by 2030 11 percent of the nation’s power will be generated by renewable resources.

By then, Jeju will be producing 3.3 million kilowatts of energy on the land and 2 million kilowatts of energy through wind turbines at sea every hour, which will “cover all [Jeju’s] energy [needs],” said Kang.

The project is expected to create 40,000 jobs for the construction and maintenance of the facilities, and will reduce Jeju’s greenhouse gases by 90 percent.

This project is a world first said Kang, with the central government in charge to ensure the “happiness of the Jeju citizen,“ which is “dependant on how they can manage its water and wind.”

(Interpretation by Yang Young Jae)

Jeju Smart Grid test bed

It was decided back in 2009 during the Italian G8 Summit that Korea would shoulder the responsibility of fostering Smart Grid technologies. Not long after, with an investment of 240 billion won (US$208 million), facilities were built in Guwja-eup, Jeju City, with the purpose of testings, developing, and producing Smart Grid technologies.

The Smart Grid is fast becoming a new green growth engine for Korea and sees that the old form of supplying power be redone so the consumer has real-time communication with the power supply companies. This allows the consumer to know when power is cheapest.

Also, houses will be fitted with solar panels that the consumer can use to run the house during the more expensive times of the day for power, instead of paying for power supplied through the companies. At the end of the month power accumulated but not used through the solar panels is then sold to the power company, potentially saving the homeowner lots of money.

On top of that the system is reliant on renewable energy sources like wind and solar power, with the hope that Jeju will be completely off fossil fuels by 2030.

The first phase of this multi-decade plan was the construction of facilities and infrastructure which concluded in May 2011. The second phase, which has been underway since last summer, is to test the facilities and prepare the technology for expansion and export to the mainland and overseas.


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