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| Fishermen in South Jeolla Province hold a rally at a port in Mokpo urging the government to scrap its plan to install offshore wind power facilities, Feb. 16. Yonhap |
Hasty push for wind, solar energy criticized for various side effects
By Baek Byung-yeul
The Moon Jae-in administration's drive to increase the use of solar, wind and other renewable energy has been facing resistance from farmers, fishermen and environmental activists after spawning a range of side effects, according to critics, Tuesday.
Fishermen are protesting the installation of wind power generators in the sea citing harm to the marine ecosystem and endangering their livelihoods. In addition, solar power generation facilities have been extensively installed in fields and on mountains, leading to opposition from residents of those areas for damaging the natural environment.
Experts pointed out that the government is trying to forcefully increase the proportion of renewable energy in line with its plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
"Nowadays, offshore wind power operators do not gain control through auctions as in the United States. Instead they can acquire business rights by attaching wind power measuring tools in the sea. Local governments are also offering licenses to comply with the central government's carbon neutrality drive," Park Ho-jeong, a professor at the Department of Food and Resource Economics at Korea University, said.
"In this way, various problems, such as waste disposal from offshore wind power, will be a big headache for the country in the future. For example, there will be continuous issues, such as why we are moving waste from the coast of Sinan County to North Gyeongsang Province," he added.
In 2021, Korea became the 14th country in the world to legislate the Carbon Neutrality Act, deciding to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 2018 levels by 2030 and consequently achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
To that end, the government said it would raise the share of renewable energy in the total energy mix to 30.2 percent by 2030. As of 2020, the share of Korea's energy mix consisted of 35.6 percent coal power generation; 29 percent nuclear power; 26.5 percent gas; 3 percent solar power; and 0.6 percent wind power.
Fishermen protest expansion of wind power
On Feb. 16, more than 250 fishermen in South Jeolla Province boarded fishing boats off Mokpo and protested at sea. They argued that the government allowed private wind power operators to conduct wind power generation projects throughout the nation without sufficient research on their effects or countermeasures, threatening their livelihoods.
In response to the fishermen's protest, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said it will give local fishermen the authority to invest in wind power generation so that the residents there can also benefit from wind power generation projects.
However, the fishermen argued that the creation of a wind power generation complex could reduce the number of areas available for fishing and devastate the fishing grounds due to noise generated from wind power generators.
"Wind power business operators, powered by the government's Green New Deal policy, are threatening our livelihoods. They have installed more than 200 wind power measurement tools in waters all around the country," the fishermen said in a statement. "We need to immediately abolish the private-led offshore wind power development method."
If the wind power generation project continues at the current pace, there are also fears that most related business opportunities could go to foreign companies, Park at Korea University said.
"Overseas companies are paying a lot of attention to Korea's wind power generation business. Rather than simply increasing the volume of wind power generation, the government should properly adjust the speed of the project so that domestic companies can foster their capabilities," he said.
Data suggests the rapid expansion of the country's wind power generation business has been a boon for foreign companies.
Rep. Han Moo-kyung of the People Power Party said in October, 2021, that a total of 87 wind power plants with a capacity of over 30 megawatts each on land and at sea were licensed from 2004 to 2021, and domestic companies took part in only 20 of those projects.
"If the government tries to meet its target volume, it will have no choice but to attract more overseas capital and contract foreign companies. Then, it is difficult for domestic firms to advance into the business. The local firms will also have difficulties in carrying out ongoing research and development," the professor added.
Rep. Han said that it is mostly foreign companies that are so far the beneficiaries of the taxes invested in the government's expansion of renewable energy.
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| Solar panels lie damaged after a landslide in Jecheon, North Chungcheong Province, in this Aug. 8, 2020 photo. Yonhap |
Solar panel installations harm environment
In addition to the wind power generation issue, what appears to be indiscriminate installations of solar power generation facilities in rural areas have caused damage to natural ecosystems. In particular, in cases where solar power generators have been installed in mountainous areas, landslides occurred during the summer rainy season causing extensive damage.
A civil engineer, who declined to be named, said that solar power generation facilities could significantly damage forests and weaken the ground through the construction process.
"Installing solar power generation facilities in mountainous areas requires excavation and the environment is damaged in the process. This increases the risk of landslides when heavy rainfall occurs. Installation should be made in consideration of topography and geology, and attention should also be paid to landslide prevention," he said.
Some politicians and academics have said that in order to compensate for these drawbacks of pushing renewable energy too quickly to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, existing power generation methods such as nuclear power generation should not be ignored.
"If the government normalizes the operation of nuclear power plants, it will be possible to achieve the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, even if the proportion of the renewable energy generation is maintained at between 17 percent and 20 percent," Lee Jong-ho, a researcher at Seoul National University's Nuclear Research Institute for Future Technology and Policy, said at a recent conference.
"If the construction of Shin Hanul power plant reactors No. 3 and No. 4 is resumed and if we continue to operate eight to 10 nuclear power plants, whose operating permits expire by 2030, Korea can achieve the greenhouse gas reduction target and prevent an increase in electricity fees by 14 percent," Lee added.
Yoon Suk-yeol, the presidential candidate of the main opposition People Power Party, has pledged to resume the now-halted construction of Shin Hanul nuclear power plant reactors No. 3 and No. 4 in order to retain nuclear power's proportion of the energy mix at 30 to 40 percent.
