Alternative energy strategy is absent

Rising oil prices hang heavy on the economy, but there is no suitable substitute at present. In Korea, which must import all of its oil, the development of alternative energy sources is the only answer, experts say. JoongAng Ilbo reporters visited France, Japan, the United States, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Iceland to look at their alternative energy development programs, and examined the Korean situation. A wind power plant is lying idle on Ulleungdo Island. The German plant was completed on the island in November 2000 after the Gyeongbuk local government invested 1.3 billion won ($1.1 million). But it has operated for only about 20 days because the plant did not fit in with Korea’s power transmission system. Another German wind power plant on Jeju Island was built in 1992 by the Korea National Tourism Organization for 500 million won. It has not operated since it broke down five years ago. It would cost about 80 million won to fix the power plant, including bringing engineers from Germany. Construction of nuclear power plants, which were supposed to have started last year, has not taken place because the government has delayed approval of the projects. About 110 wind power plants have been constructed in Korea, but 15 of them have stopped operating or have been removed because of defects. Among the total, only a few are Korean products. The situation reflects the government’s temporary enthusiasm for alternative energy sources ― an enthusiasm that emerges only when international oil prices rise. Nuclear power does not provide as much energy here as in Japan or France. Japan has 52 nuclear power plants; France operates 59. Japan is planning to construct, or has already begun building, an additional 11 nuclear plants. Korea, in contrast, has 19 nuclear facilities. “Nations not blessed with natural resources have expanded nuclear power on a large scale since the first oil shock in 1973,” said Kang Yoon-young of the Korea Energy Economics Institute. “They also aimed at the development of clean energy, using wind, water or solar power,” he said. “In contrast, Korea met its rapidly rising demand by increasing oil imports.” Mr. Kang said that Korea failed to increase the ratio of domestic energy production to its total energy use. France raised its ratio to 50 percent, Sweden to 62 percent and Japan to 20 percent after the first oil shock. Korea’s “self-support” ratio is about 18 percent. It has not worked on the development of alternative energy sources, except for constructing nuclear plants, which account for 15 percent of total energy needs. Other alternative sources, such as wind power, solar power and hydropower, account for only 2 percent of total energy requirements, ranking Korea 25th among the 30 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Korea spent about 46 trillion won to import oil, coal and natural gas last year, a figure equivalent to about half of the national budget. The government promulgated a law to promote alternative energy technology in 1987. The law was aimed at the development of 11 alternative energy sources, excluding nuclear power. But the government only invested 180 billion won in such projects in the succeeding 15 years. In contrast, Japan spent 800 billion won last year on developing alternative energy. The solar power plants the government planned to develop extensively when it promulgated the law have supplied only 6 megawatts of power so far, an amount sufficient to supply electricity to 2,000 households at most. Currently, 93 percent of the alternative energy used in Korea is created by burning waste, such as wood or garbage, in factories or large garbage disposal sites, a far cry from the wind, solar and hydropower that other countries are competitively developing. The government’s passivity in developing alternative energy sources has resulted in the current energy crisis, since it was satisfied with declining oil prices in the 1990s, said Kim Hyun-jin, a researcher at Samsung Economic Research Institute. “Since high oil prices seem to be persisting, the government should diversify its import sources for different types of fuel and expand its own energy production.” The government announced several policies to encourage the development of alternative energy in 2002, when the international community agreed that consumption of fossil fuels should decline. The government planned to have alternative energy sources accounting for 5 percent of total energy consumption by 2011, which would be equivalent to the amount of oil Korea consumes in one month. According to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, the government needs 352 billion won this year to achieve that goal, but the budget is only 196.4 billion won. by Special Reporting Team