Is South Korea the New Frontier for Green Technology?

South Korea looks to be a prime opportunity for entrepreneurs involved in green technology. The South Korean government has announced that it plans to spend $7.18 billion over the next twenty years to build the world’s first nationwide smart grid system. This includes spending $358 million each year till 2016. South Korea has already made significant investments in green technology, so this confirms that the market is solid. One of the issues that South Korea faces is that they use a lot of electricity.

The primary way of meeting the demand for electricity is via power plants that use fossil fuels and natural gas. Even though the country has taken steps to be more “green”, they are still considered a high carbon polluter within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Part of this investment will be applied to a newly planned 2,500 megawatt offshore wind farm. The European Union is currently the world’s leader in offshore wind farm technology. Many of their wind farms are in the 300-400 MW range. So this planned wind farm is six times larger than what is commonly in current operation.

South Korea has pledged to reduce greenhouse gasses by 30% by the year 2020 and has mandated that at least 10% of its electrical power from its major power plants come from renewable sources, such as wind and solar, by the year 2022. For entrepreneurs involved in wind, solar, and battery technology, this could be a very lucrative market. Both the Samsung Group & the LG Group are already involved with this project.

The other key component of this smart grid system is the creation a revolutionary system of meters, regulators, and appliances to control the system. An efficient smart grid will contain sensors throughout the system that send information about power usage and distribution in real time to monitoring stations. This will allow the power companies to monitor and watch the areas that use the most power as well as taking appropriate action in those areas. For entrepreneurs involved in smart grid applications, this also will provide some interesting opportunities.

Other energy conservation projects that the South Korean government has been involved with include creating hydrogen generators from landfills, rooftop gardens, and utilizing electric scooters for local law enforcement. These provide hope to innovators marketing their new ideas that are on the cutting edge. With South Korea allocating billions of dollars to fund an energy revolution, opportunities abound for the savvy entrepreneur.

 

S. M. Combs blogs for residential solar energy blog, her hobby blog centered on ideas to aid home owners find solar contractors and learn how to save energy with solar power.

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