BP Report Shows Korea Behind in Renewables
By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter
South Korea is the world's ninth energy-consuming country but the level of alternative energy development and consumption is well below the global average, according to this year's statistical review of world energy.
The annual report, published by a global oil giant British Petroleum (BP), showed the country last year consumed a total of 234 million tons' worth of oil equivalent for primary energy, which includes oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear energy and hydro-electricity. The United States topped the list with 2.36 billion tons.
Korea had a relatively high dependence on nuclear energy, which ranked fifth in the world. However, it fell short in hydro-electricity, the only kind of alternative energy categorized as primary energy, among the top 10 energy-consuming countries.
Hydro-electricity accounted for just 0.5 percent of the country's energy consumption last year, the same as in 2006. The average was 9.8 percent in the top 10 countries and 6.4 percent worldwide. Its consumption stood at 1.1 million tons of oil equivalent, at the lowest level in Asia below Thailand, Taiwan and Malaysia.
Brazil and Canada led the field, with the renewable energy taking 38.8 percent and 25.9 percent in domestic energy consumptions, respectively.
Korea was also at the lowest level in other kinds of renewable energy. Aside from geothermal energy, which requires particular geometrical conditions, the country didn't register any significant production in fuel ethanol and wind energy.
The only decent part was solar energy generation, where its photovoltaic power generation was ninth in the world at 34,733 kilowatts in 2006 with a 156.8 percent growth from the previous year.
Renewable energy still takes just a small part of today's global energy picture, but is displaying a notably rapid growth rate, the report said.
Eco-friendly alternative energy is an increasingly important source for electricity generation in some advanced countries. Wind power, for example, has about 20 percent share of total electricity generation in Denmark, and 7 to 10 percent in Germany and Spain.
BP held a presentation of the annual review Thursday in Seoul. The original report came prior to this year's World Petroleum Congress, which was held in Madrid, Spain, from June 29 to July 4.
Since January 2003, the world has seen inflation of 300 percent for oil and 200 percent for coal, BP's chief economist Christof Ruhl said at the presentation.
The global economy had grown more quickly than at any period since the early 1970s while supply failed to respond adequately for the last five years, Ruhl said.
Oil production worldwide in 2007 was tallied at 81.53 million barrels per day, down 0.2 percent from a year earlier, in its first annual drop since 2002, the BP report said.
In contrast, oil prices rose for six consecutive years, the first time since the price records began in 1861.