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Kowepo signs an MOU with EDF-R on renewables

Published: 29 Mar. 2023, 14:28 Updated: 29 Mar. 2023, 17:16

Korea Western Power Corporation CEO Park Hyung-duck, right, signs a memorandum of understanding with EDF Renewables in Paris on Monday. [KOREA WESTERN POWER CORPORATION]

Korea Western Power Corporation (Kowepo) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with a French company for renewable energy and green hydrogen.

Kowepo signed the MOU with EDF Renewables (EDF-R), a renewable energy subsidiary of France’s state-run electricity corporation Electricite de France (EDF), at the EDF headquarters in Paris on Monday. The agreement covers cooperation for new renewable energy and green hydrogen business in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), where solar and wind resources are abundant.

The MOU stems from the trust established by the two companies while working together to win the deal to build a 500-megawatt solar power plant in Manah, Oman, Kowepo announced. The public energy companies of Korea and France shared a common interest in the development of the green energy business in the MENA area.

I have "big expectations for our companies’ long-term cooperation on new renewable energy and green hydrogen business in the MENA region,” said Bruno Bensasson, EDF-R CEO and senior executive vice president of EDF.

“The long-term synergy has been affirmed during the Manah power plant project,” Kowepo CEO Park Hyung-duck said.

The two heads agreed to expand the green energy business into other MENA countries.

The Korean government plans to increase the share of renewable energy to 23 percent of total power generation by 2035, using 200,000 tons of hydrogen and 1 million tons of ammonia as energy sources. Korea sourced 7.5 percent of its energy from renewable energy in 2021.

BY SOHN DONG-JOO [[email protected]]