Republic of Korea

Highlights in 2017
Highlights in 2017

 

New clean energy innovation policies and/or strategies

Since the launch of the Mission Innovation, to refocus Korea’s energy R&D on clean energy, seven relevant government ministries and approximately 200 experts from industry, academia and research institutes collaborated to establish the clean energy technology development strategy through the Clean Energy Technology Roadmap. The Republic of Korea’s Clean Energy Technology Roadmap marks the milestones for clean energy technology development in order to achieve a low-carbon society, and it helps to realize the energy policy directions of the Korean government. The vision of the roadmap is to “convert the new climate regime crisis into an opportunity for economic growth through clean energy technology innovation.” The goals of the roadmap are 1) responding to climate change by contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions 2) creating new energy business, and 3) leading global technological innovation.

The government also released a revised plan for renewable energy recently. The “Renewable Energy 3020” implementation plan includes the goal of increasing the share of renewable energy in power generation to 20% by 2030. Under this plan, the generation capacity from renewable sources will reach 63.8GW by 2030. 95% of the renewable generation capacity is planned to be delivered by wind power and photovoltaics.  For the R&D development, the short-term goal is to support the commercialization of market-ready technologies, whereas the long-term goal is to obtain cutting-edge technologies. The major R&D area will be photovoltaics and wind power. For photovoltaics, the next generation solar cells including OPV, perovskite, metallic compound will be developed. For wind power, floating-type off-shore wind power with 5MW capacity and multi-type turbine beyond 10MW (2.5MWx4) will be focused.

Top clean energy innovation successes in 2017

  • Clean Energy Technology Joint-Call Program for MI Innovation Challenges: In 2017, the Republic of Korea has designed a new joint research program for MI Innovation Challenges, and it has been approved to be launched in 2018. The funding size for this program is 3 billion Korean Won (approximately 2.7 million US Dollars) for 3 years. For this program, all research areas related to the Innovation Challenges are eligible. Researchers from any MI member countries can apply for the fund as long as their research consortium is formed with the Korean participants.
  • Budget increase on clean energy technology demonstration projects: In 2017, the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy has confirmed to invest 98 billion Korean Won (approximately 91 million US Dollars) for clean energy demonstration projects. It was an increase of 2.2 million Korean Won (approximately 20 million US Dollars) compared to 2016. The priority areas would be smart grid, renewable energy and ESS. The investment plan for clean energy demonstration projects has been included in a newly launched roadmap called “Energy Technology Demonstration Roadmap”. Also, the operational guidelines for demonstration projects have been established to alleviate cumbersome regulation procedures. In order to accelerate the deployment of clean energy technology in the market through demonstration projects, KETEP, energy R&D agency of Korea, consults and supports the researchers to breakthrough bottlenecks such as licensing, civil complaints, and other troublesome issues related to commercialization.
  • Engagement of energy public enterprises: To fulfill the doubling plan for the R&D investment, more active engagement of the energy public enterprises was needed. In 2017, the council for the energy public enterprise was newly launched. In this council, 17 energy public enterprises were convened to announce their R&D investment plans, which sum up to 1.2 trillion Korean Won (approximately 1.1 billion US Dollars) for 2018. Their investment priorities are research areas related to energy transition and energy issues in the 4th industrial revolution.

Top activities delivered in support of the Innovation Challenges in 2017

  • Since the launch of the Innovation Challenges in 2016, the Republic of Korea has been engaging in Smart Grid, Off-grid, CCUS, and Clean Energy Materials Innovation Challenge. The Republic of Korea has been participating in networking, various workshops, conference calls and documentation of reports.
  • Through the Smart Grid Innovation Challenge, the Republic of Korea has communicated with the United Kingdom, and as an outcome, a joint project call was launched in Feb 2018. Researchers from both countries will form an R&D joint consortium to resolve Smart Grid related technical issues.
  • For the documentation, the Republic of Korea has participated in writing “country report” for the Smart Grid Innovation Challenge, which introduces smart grid policies and R&D programs of the Republic of Korea. Also, the Republic of Korea has participated in writing “workshop report” in the Clean Energy Materials Innovation Challenge. In addition, the Republic of Korea has shown an interest in participating in the Affordable Heating & Cooling of Buildings Innovation Challenge.

Collaborations

ROK-UK Joint Call on IC1
Countries: United Kingdom
Type of collaboration: public-private
Start date: Launched in Feb. 9th, 2018
Funding amount: $8.8 million USD (total)

ROK and UK plan to announce a joint call at MI-3, launched in Feb 9th, with US$ 8.8 Million funding that will support researchers and private sector from both countries to work collaboratively on 3 year projects. The focus will be to accelerate innovation around the focus of IC1.

Additional information: www.ketep.re.kr; https://www.gov.uk/guidance/funding-for-innovative-smart-energy-systems

MI Joint Call on Clean Energy Technologies
Start date: The call for the project will begin in June 2018.
Funding amount: $1 million USD annual funding

Korea plans to launch a program specifically aims to support all MI Innovation Challenges with $1M annual funding. The call for project will begin in June. To participate in the program, researchers of member countries with partnered Korean researchers can apply with any subject related to any IC. The focus of this program is to support activate participation on Innovation Challenges and enhance its outcomes.