Playing a Pivotal Role for Spurring Green Growth

Despite the rapidly changing environment and ever-increasing challenges at home and abroad, the New and Renewable Energy Center (NREC) has been making every effort for a sustainable development of the nation. Kim Hyung-jin, Director General of the NREC at Korea Energy Management Corporation, believes that the center will certainly become an internationally recognized institution in the new and renewable energy field in the near future. BusinessKorea had a Q and A session with him to hear about the role and mission of the public organization. Following are the excerpts from the interview with him.

Please accept our congratulations on your taking office as the head of NREC. Would you give us a few words on it and introduce yourself?

Thirty years ago, I began working in the field of solar power and now I am taking a position which holds the highest responsibility for it later in my life. On the one hand, the position personally reminds me of the early days, but on the other hand, it carries the gravity of the job in my mind.

I regard communication as one of the most important values. In this sense, I have been spending the first few months for meeting people at the National Assembly, industries, schools, research institutes, and government agencies to build communication network.

During those years, I worked for Gwangju-Jeonnam Office, New and Renewable Energy Supply Office, and Management Support Office of the Korea Energy Management Corporation. Based on the experiences, I would devote myself to spreading renewable energy and developing the industry into a new growth engine of the nation.

Green growth has become a national issue and the NREC seems to be at the center of it all. Please give us a brief introduction of the center.

The center was designated to promote the use and diffusion of new and renewable energy in a professional and efficient manner as prescribed by Article 31 of the Act on the Promotion of the Development, Use and Diffusion of New and Renewable Energy.

Under the 3rd National Basic Energy Plan, the NREC has endeavored to meet the target of increasing the nation’s renewable energy portfolio to 11% by 2030. In this regard, it has been playing a pivotal role in creating domestic renewable energy market and nurturing the renewable business sector into an export industry.

To fulfill the responsibilities as the control tower of the national pursuit of renewable energy, the NREC remains committed to supporting policy development and planning.

We learned that you had reported to the President in regardsto creating a taskforce team for responding to renewable portfolio standard (RPS) at the briefing of the Presidential Committee on Green Growth. What developments have been made on this front so far?

To run the RPS system in an efficient manner and to ensure specialty in dealing with the RPS certification process, the NREC was designated in December 2010as the control tower to take the responsibilities for operating the RPS system.

Accordingly, we are expecting to secure an increasingdiffusion of new and renewable energy, a less financial burden on the government, and a growth of relevant businesses. Reasonable prices also will be determined through the mechanism operating in the market

The RPS taskforce team, which was designated as a body for issuing the certifications and later enlarged to the RPS division, plays a leading role in setting the “Rules on Issuing of RPS Certificates and Operating of the Certificate Trading Market.

In what tasks do you place the greatest emphasis this year?

To vitalize the diffusion of new and renewable energy in Korea, the NREC will push ahead with laying a foundation to implement the RPS system without any disruption, strengthening green village projects, establishing and operating after-sales service teams to manage the maintenance of diffusion system and enhance its efficiency, simplifying the diffusion process, and pursuing the ten green energy projects.

In particular, total 311.9 billion won, up 19.8 billion won from last year, will be injected into the expansion of green homes and villages as well as the establishment of test beds for new and renewable energy.

To this end, the NREC will build a legal foundation for the RPS system in May this year to run a pilot operation from June to September. The results will be used as the basis for revising the laws and regulations to implement the RPS system in earnest next year.

Moreover, the center is determined to encourage installations of renewable energy facilities in the private sector by introducing the building certification system. To this end, we will continue to carry out the management and promotion of specialized new and renewable companies by certifying new and renewable energy facilities, designating certification institutions for it, and establishing a system for certification management. In addition, the NREC will iron out various policies and legal foundations to enforce installations of new and renewable energy facilities in more public institutions and obligatory uses of mixed bio energy.

The world’s renewable energy market has been growing by leaps and bounds. To secure a stronghold in the market, the NREC is going to support the businesses of parts and materials equipped with latest technologies for new and renewable energy in their exporting and winning overseas contracts especially of photovoltaics and wind power.

Specifically, the center will support domestic new and renewable businesses in obtaining international certificates in other countries; issue the International Electrotechnical Commission for Electrical Equipment (IECEE) certificate for photovoltaics; carry out international training programs; conduct overseas market surveys and explore promising projects; pioneer new markets through efforts such as overseas roadshow; and continue to hold “Renewable Energy Korea,” the largest trade show of its kind in Northeast Asia

In addition to solidifying multilateral cooperation with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the International Energy Agency (IEA), the NREC will seek also bilateral cooperation with relevant institutions in other countries including Germany, Spain, Malaysia, and United Arab Emirates to facilitate Korean firms’ inroad into global markets.

The items subject to new and renewable energy certification will be expanded. Also, energy source-specific test beds will be built in every regional economic bloc where the pilot test analysis, performance test, and reliability test can be conducted on technologies or products developed by small and medium companies suffering difficulties in commercialization of them. Furthermore, we will form business clusters to facilitate the growth of such companies as well.

Finally, the center will strengthen its policy-making support efforts. For example, we will draw strategic plans through the researches and surveys on the government policies, market outlooks and industrial movements home and abroad. We will also establish a knowledge-based platform for the policy, industry statistics, etc, in new and renewable energy sector by putting an integrated information system in place.

Please tell us the vision of the center for the future.

Backed by the staff consisting of top-notched specialists in the new and renewable energy field, we have been making all-out efforts for sustainable development of the nation. Despite the rapidly changing environment at home and abroad and ever-increasing challenges, the center will certainly, we believe, become an internationally recognized institution in the field of new and renewable energy in the near future if it remains committed to developing internal expertise and capabilities.

Despite the rapidly changing environment and ever-increasing challenges at home and abroad, the New and Renewable Energy Center (NREC) has been making every effort for a sustainable development of the nation. Kim Hyung-jin, Director General of the NREC at Korea Energy Management Corporation, believes that the center will certainly become an internationally recognized institution in the new and renewable energy field in the near future. BusinessKorea had a Q and A session with him to hear about the role and mission of the public organization. Following are the excerpts from the interview with him.

Please accept our congratulations on your taking office as the head of NREC. Would you give us a few words on it and introduce yourself?

Thirty years ago, I began working in the field of solar power and now I am taking a position which holds the highest responsibility for it later in my life. On the one hand, the position personally reminds me of the early days, but on the other hand, it carries the gravity of the job in my mind.

I regard communication as one of the most important values. In this sense, I have been spending the first few months for meeting people at the National Assembly, industries, schools, research institutes, and government agencies to build communication network.

During those years, I worked for Gwangju-Jeonnam Office, New and Renewable Energy Supply Office, and Management Support Office of the Korea Energy Management Corporation. Based on the experiences, I would devote myself to spreading renewable energy and developing the industry into a new growth engine of the nation.

Green growth has become a national issue and the NREC seems to be at the center of it all. Please give us a brief introduction of the center.

The center was designated to promote the use and diffusion of new and renewable energy in a professional and efficient manner as prescribed by Article 31 of the Act on the Promotion of the Development, Use and Diffusion of New and Renewable Energy.

Under the 3rd National Basic Energy Plan, the NREC has endeavored to meet the target of increasing the nation’s renewable energy portfolio to 11% by 2030. In this regard, it has been playing a pivotal role in creating domestic renewable energy market and nurturing the renewable business sector into an export industry.

To fulfill the responsibilities as the control tower of the national pursuit of renewable energy, the NREC remains committed to supporting policy development and planning.

We learned that you had reported to the President in regardsto creating a taskforce team for responding to renewable portfolio standard (RPS) at the briefing of the Presidential Committee on Green Growth. What developments have been made on this front so far?

To run the RPS system in an efficient manner and to ensure specialty in dealing with the RPS certification process, the NREC was designated in December 2010as the control tower to take the responsibilities for operating the RPS system.

Accordingly, we are expecting to secure an increasingdiffusion of new and renewable energy, a less financial burden on the government, and a growth of relevant businesses. Reasonable prices also will be determined through the mechanism operating in the market

The RPS taskforce team, which was designated as a body for issuing the certifications and later enlarged to the RPS division, plays a leading role in setting the “Rules on Issuing of RPS Certificates and Operating of the Certificate Trading Market.

In what tasks do you place the greatest emphasis this year?

To vitalize the diffusion of new and renewable energy in Korea, the NREC will push ahead with laying a foundation to implement the RPS system without any disruption, strengthening green village projects, establishing and operating after-sales service teams to manage the maintenance of diffusion system and enhance its efficiency, simplifying the diffusion process, and pursuing the ten green energy projects.

In particular, total 311.9 billion won, up 19.8 billion won from last year, will be injected into the expansion of green homes and villages as well as the establishment of test beds for new and renewable energy.

To this end, the NREC will build a legal foundation for the RPS system in May this year to run a pilot operation from June to September. The results will be used as the basis for revising the laws and regulations to implement the RPS system in earnest next year.

Moreover, the center is determined to encourage installations of renewable energy facilities in the private sector by introducing the building certification system. To this end, we will continue to carry out the management and promotion of specialized new and renewable companies by certifying new and renewable energy facilities, designating certification institutions for it, and establishing a system for certification management. In addition, the NREC will iron out various policies and legal foundations to enforce installations of new and renewable energy facilities in more public institutions and obligatory uses of mixed bio energy.

The world’s renewable energy market has been growing by leaps and bounds. To secure a stronghold in the market, the NREC is going to support the businesses of parts and materials equipped with latest technologies for new and renewable energy in their exporting and winning overseas contracts especially of photovoltaics and wind power.

Specifically, the center will support domestic new and renewable businesses in obtaining international certificates in other countries; issue the International Electrotechnical Commission for Electrical Equipment (IECEE) certificate for photovoltaics; carry out international training programs; conduct overseas market surveys and explore promising projects; pioneer new markets through efforts such as overseas roadshow; and continue to hold “Renewable Energy Korea,” the largest trade show of its kind in Northeast Asia

In addition to solidifying multilateral cooperation with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the International Energy Agency (IEA), the NREC will seek also bilateral cooperation with relevant institutions in other countries including Germany, Spain, Malaysia, and United Arab Emirates to facilitate Korean firms’ inroad into global markets.

The items subject to new and renewable energy certification will be expanded. Also, energy source-specific test beds will be built in every regional economic bloc where the pilot test analysis, performance test, and reliability test can be conducted on technologies or products developed by small and medium companies suffering difficulties in commercialization of them. Furthermore, we will form business clusters to facilitate the growth of such companies as well.

Finally, the center will strengthen its policy-making support efforts. For example, we will draw strategic plans through the researches and surveys on the government policies, market outlooks and industrial movements home and abroad. We will also establish a knowledge-based platform for the policy, industry statistics, etc, in new and renewable energy sector by putting an integrated information system in place.

Please tell us the vision of the center for the future.

Backed by the staff consisting of top-notched specialists in the new and renewable energy field, we have been making all-out efforts for sustainable development of the nation. Despite the rapidly changing environment at home and abroad and ever-increasing challenges, the center will certainly, we believe, become an internationally recognized institution in the field of new and renewable energy in the near future if it remains committed to developing internal expertise and capabilities.