CEO leads eco-friendly energy drive

Yoon Tae-hwan, CEO of Root Energy

By Park Ji-won

Yoon Tae-hwan, CEO and founder of Root Energy, believes his IT venture can provide consumers with electricity sources by helping them gain ownership of their own energy supply facilities.

“I will keep running this company until Korea harnesses clean energy sources to the fullest so that it can achieve energy self-sufficiency. I don’t care how long it takes,” he told The Korea Times.

Root Energy is a consulting firm founded last year which focuses on consulting services to build various renewable energy generators and provide financing services for investors. It earns money from commissions it collects from its clients.

“I don’t believe the notion that socially beneficial enterprises aren’t there for profit. Our business is profitable and a win-win platform providing everyone with revenue sources.”

South Korea is one of the least energy self-sufficient countries in the world. Renewable energy represents a mere 1.58 percent of the nation’s total energy supply, according to the OECD Better Life Index, while Denmark and Iceland boast 20.14 percent and 83.43 percent, respectively.

Even North Korea is at 10 percent and China, 20 percent.

Amid little interest among Koreans regarding energy issues, especially renewable supplies, Yoon decided to launch his own firm.

“I got interested in energy right before I graduated from university after asking myself, ‘To what field can I devote myself for the rest of my life?’” he said.

With this in mind, Yoon attended many international conferences to gain inspiration from professionals all over the world during his last semester at the university.

“I really liked their debates and what they do. After many months of commuting to international conferences, I simply decided to become part of the sector, especially with a company with the most professional works with energy business to absorb what they do,” he said.

He applied to get a job in Eco-Frontier, a consulting firm specializing in sustainable energy businesses such as carbon emissions, but failed because the Korean job market was frozen due to the global financial crisis.

However, he kept sending his resume to firms.

He did an internship at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology and the Hope Institute, an organization that supports social innovations. He tackled issues such as solar energy and climate change.

Yoon said he worked diligently for three years doing many projects with energy businesses and learned a lot. But he eventually quit the job and decided to study at a graduate school in Denmark.

“It was nice to work with the best talents in the field, but I felt powerless many times whenever government projects we took were cancelled as the new administration was installed,” he said.

He realized top-down decision-making cannot enable fundamental changes in the world and he went to a country where there are successful bottom-up ways to vitalize the energy sector — Denmark.

He majored in wind energy and made a living by doing research work there for the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), but didn’t stay long and came back.

“I could stay there, but I thought I could contribute more in Korea while pursuing a project to establish wind energy facilities in Africa. I was confident what I could do for my country. And no one else in Korea is doing what I am for the renewable energy business,” he said.

Yoon said the renewable energy industry is in its infancy here, and that most people consider it too expensive to install generating facilities.

“It is almost like embarking on an exploratory sea voyage. It is hard, very hard. It is especially difficult to earn people’s trust and support due to a lack of their understanding about what I am doing,” he said.

“But I believe what I am doing is right because I can see similar businesses which make positive differences in the world. This belief motivates me,” he added.

The firm will launch a webpage to invite investors in June to solar energy facilities which will start construction in a private welfare institute, Angel’s Haven, in Eunpyeong-gu, and Seodaemun-gu, northwestern Seoul.