South Korea Finalizes Energy Technology Development Plan for Next 10 Years

South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced on Dec. 23 that it has finalized “The 4th Energy Technology Development Plan,” which presents its energy technology vision and R&D investment strategy for the next 10 years.

Under the plan, MOTIE will focus its efforts on 50 development goals set in the 16 fields: solar energy; wind power; hydrogen; advanced energy materials; nuclear power; clean power generation; resource development; recycled resources; energy saftey; energy efficiency of buildings; industrial efficiency; transportation efficiency; big data; smart grid; energy storage; and cyber security.

The ministry explained that the plan’s goal is to create economic values worth 57 trillion won and raise the level of energy technology by 10 percent compared to the current level.

Among those development goals, the advancement and commercialization of wireless charging technology draws attention. The ministry plans to develop charging technology by dramatically lowering the rate of power loss incurred in use of a wireless charger to raise the efficiency of transmitting wireless power up to 87 percent by 2030.

The goal of commercializing low-costhydrogen production technology for charging stations of hydrogen powered cars stands out as well. Currently, the rate of water electrolysis, which extracts hydrogen from water, remains at about 50 percent, a rate short of being commercialized. The ministry has set a goal of developing a technology to produce 5,000 kg of hydrogen a day by raising the electrolysis rate to 80 percent by 2030.

The development planning includes a goal of raising the efficiency of perovskite and silicon solar cells, of which photoelectric conversion efficiency (efficiency of converting solar energy to electricity) remains at 23 percent, to 35 percent.

Besides, super large-scale wind power facilities with a capacity of 20 MW; 8 MW wind turbines; fuel-cell power systems with a generating efficiency of 60 percent; a technology of reducing 90 percent of fine dust from thermal power plants; 500 kW, high-speed battery chargers for electric vehicles are also included in the plan.