Paving the Way for Carbon-neutral Future

Yoon Eui-joon (center), president of The Korea Institute of Energy Technology, and other panelists pose for a photo before the opening of the Energy Forum.

The Korea Institute of Energy Technology (KENTECH), which is scheduled to open in March next year as the world's only university specializing in energy, recently organized the first Energy Forum to shed light on the development of alternative energy sources for carbon neutrality. Following are excerpts of the remarks made by the panelists at the forum, which was held jointly with the Electronic Times. – Ed.

KENTECH president Yoon Eui-joon

Yoon Eui-joon (KENTECH president): The international community began to pay attention to carbon neutrality as climate change is accelerating. Major developed countries such as Sweden, the United Kingdom, France, Denmark, and New Zealand have already enacted laws on carbon neutrality. U.S. President Joe Biden rejoined the Paris Agreement shortly after taking office and promised to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050,.

In October last year, Korean President Moon Jae-in declared a plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 in a speech at the National Assembly. Carbon neutrality is not an option but an essential task for Korea's national interests. However, considering Korea's high dependence on fossil fuels and low proportion of renewable energy, carbon neutrality in the energy sector is not an easy task. From energy supply to transmission to consumption, it is necessary to change Korea’s current energy system.

To realize this, we need to foster energy professionals and develop original technologies. In this regard, the roles of colleges and universities really matter. Cooperation is important among the government, universities and colleges, and the private sector. In Korea's manufacturing-oriented industrial structure, the government’s R&D policies and investment for carbon neutrality should combine with research and technology development efforts of universities and the private sector to pave the way for a transition to competitive low-carbon industries.

Electronic Times CEO Yang Seung-wook

Yang Seung-wook (CEO of the Electronic Times): Fostering energy professionals is essential to securing future energy and taking the lead in responding to climate change in the era of energy system transformation. KENTECH was established as the world’s only university specializing in energy research and energy startup cultivation. It recorded the highest admission competition rate of 24.07:1 among Korea’s six special science and engineering universities for the 2022 academic year. I hope that KENTECH becomes the cradle for human resources for future energy research and development in Korea.

KENTECH vice president Park Jin-ho

Park Jin-ho (KENTECH vice president): It was in the 2000s that a government-led human resources development policy began. At the time, the government focused on supporting university departments as a means of fostering human resources, but the approach did not perform well. Since the 2010s, the government has been implementing a “track-type” human resources development project. In this approach, professors who do not belong to the same department but specialize in the same field form a team to carry out their selected projects. However, the track type was not effective in meeting the need to foster professionals required for technological convergence. It had a human resources mismatch problem.

KENTECH pursues an education system for students with a convergence mindset and creative problem-solving capabilities. The school needs to produce first movers rather than fast followers. Currently, the department-oriented school operation has become fixed at Korean universities. It is difficult for universities to change this operation system. Rather than ordinary students who simply solve given problems, Korean needs creative students who can create solutions after studying phenomena and find answers befitting various economic and industrial conditions. This is the educational model pursued by KENTECH.

MOTIE managing director Son Jeong-rak

Son Jeong-rak (managing director of Energy Industry at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy): The most important role of KENTECH is to cultivate talented energy professionals who can help us respond to carbon neutrality.

First, college education in Korea is goal-oriented. Education for carbon neutrality should be value-oriented. The task for KENTECH is to provide value-oriented education.

Second, it is necessary to cultivate talented people through principle-oriented education. It is necessary for schools like KENTECH, which provide innovative education to students beyond the current college framework, to think deeply about effective education about principles.

Third, attention should be paid to innovative educational methods. KENTECH needs to cultivate high-quality human resources that can create new solutions that we have not had so far. It is necessary to think about whether people who were educated 10 to 30 years ago can teach students of today about how to solve problems using innovative new tools. Corporations should be more willing to recruit creative employees so that they can come up with innovative solutions.

Fourth, it is important to cultivate global human resources. KENTECH needs to have an open mind. It is necessary to cultivate global human resources with an open attitude. Trust is especially important in the international community, and what is needed at this juncture is honesty. After all, value-oriented education is the answer.

UNIST professor Lee Jae-sung 

Lee Jae-sung (professor of energy and chemical engineering at UNIST): Selection and concentration is the approach needed in the field of research. For example, if KENTECH needs 100 professors in five fields, it is important to decide which small fields to focus on. If the school assigns 20 professors to a field, it will do well to reduce their research topics to three. I recommend the school to hire five to 10 professors in one field and aim for the world's best in it.

How can KENTECH help professors who were carefully selected perform as expected? First of all, when a new professor is hired, the president or vice president of KENTECH needs to talk with him to share the school’s vision. One of the biggest issues facing universities is the evaluation of professors. With regard to tenures, the UNIST judges professors in terms of the quality, not quantity, of the papers they have written. It encourages professors to study after setting high goals.

In addition, when a professor’s research results are not papers but a technology transfer or a startup launch, if the company shows the possibility of growing into a unicorn, the professor should be evaluated as highly as those whose papers are published in Science and Nature. An evaluation method that sets goals high needs to be introduced to aid professors’ research activities.

The most important support for professors at science and engineering colleges is research facilities. The UNIST's first investment was made in the Central Research Lab and the Research Support Headquarters. At the time, it introduced the most advanced and expensive equipment in Korea. When inviting excellent researchers from abroad, what they usually want to know is whether they will be able to continue their research in Korea. A Korean college owning state-of-the-art equipment can attract experienced and excellent research personnel from abroad as they think that the equipment can help them achieve excellent research results.

KAIST director Min Byung-kwon

Min Byung-kwon (director of the New Technology Research Headquarters at KAIST): The core of the carbon emissions issue is a breakthrough solution that reduces energy consumption. It is not easy to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 with currently available technologies. I hope that graduates from KENTECH tackle the touch challenge.

Under the government scenario, solar power should account for about 500 gigawatts (GW), but now solar power accounts for around 13 GW. To achieve 500 GW by 2050, it is necessary to consider installing solar power facilities in most of the currently exposed artificial structures. This technology is called building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV).

It is not difficult to install a solar power generation facility in a new building. For existing buildings, building-attached photovoltaic (BAPV) technology is available. This readily applicable technology makes it possible to install large-capacity solar facilities in existing buildings without having to carry out big renovations.

Discontinuity and irregularity are mentioned as the limitations of renewable energy. Energy storage systems (ESSs) that can store renewable electricity can address this problem, but other measures are also needed. One example is green hydrogen which stores electricity produced from renewable energy in chemical compounds. The technology is to electrolyze electricity into water and store it as hydrogen. 

Doosan Fuel Cell CTO Moon Sang-jin

Moon Sang-jin (CTO of Doosan Fuel Cell): When a college graduate goes to a fuel cell company or an oil company, he or she must undergo retraining according to the job requirements set by the company. The problem arises when the college doesn't teach the basics properly.

How can colleges teach students all of the technologies that a company wants the students to learn before joining it? It is good to produce convergence and creative people with talent, but students need to learn the basics well. I heard that physics and chemistry are also taught as optional subjects in undergraduate engineering courses these days.

What if a college offers specialized undergraduate courses and students choose a different career path? Specialization is needed for those at graduate schools. Even Ph.D. degree holders must also receive training at companies for at least six months. At colleges, they should teach students what they need to learn well and companies should retrain them.

Shinsung E&G president Kim Dong-seop

Kim Dong-seop (President of Shinsung E&G): The energy field needs talented convergence people covering chemistry, physics, machinery, materials and semiconductors and even information technology (IT) based on them. It wants future designers who pursue change as well as conduct research ahead of others. They are talented people who can can combine energy and digital technologies.

Good examples are Elon Musk and Steve Jobs. “My best decision was to drop out of college,” Steve Jobs once said in a commencement ceremony speech. However, since the energy field is based on physics, talented people such as Elon Musk who majored in physics and economics, are considered desirable.

KENTECH needs to offer a harmonious education. It is a harmony of education, research, and industry-academy cooperation. Students are required to have a harmony of skills, basic studies and knowledge.

Last but not least, I would like to propose the activation of industry-academy degrees. Our company is actively cooperating with Sungkyunkwan University. By establishing an industrial artificial intelligence (AI) solution research center, talented people from various organizations such as manufacturing, research, sales and planning are carrying out field-linked tasks.

Park Jin-ho: KENTECH offers a residential college program. A residential college is a kind of social and cultural community where members live in a dormitory. Current college dormitories were all about accommodation and meals. The residential college we have prepared is a comprehensive student development system. Related domestic experts were also hired. Knowledge mentioned by President Kim Dong-seop is not obtained by someone who teaches. Students have to obtain such knowledge on their own. Colleges and universities have left that part to clubs or individual students. Since KENTECH fosters an elite group of students, it can create a residential college culture.

In terms of education methods, KENTECH introduced systems such as Minerva School and Edx. In a blackboard-free classroom, students can experience a curriculum that they have not experienced in other universities and colleges for four years. It is a pre-study-based education. Most of the lectures in Korea are based on reviews. Students study a subject they will study in advance and professors act as assistants. This will naturally lead students to make changes. It is very effective for students to solve their questions about lectures they attended, talk with colleagues about the lectures and learn through team activities. KENTECH will provide this educational environment for the first time in Korea.

Yoon Eui-joon: Korean universities pay too much attention to college ranking systems. In evaluating research excellence, it is necessary to recognize the launch of a research-based startup and the contribution of a research project to meeting corporate needs. In particular, professors have trouble balancing teaching and business foundation. What about the UNIST?

Lee Jae-sung: Printing papers in Science, Nature and Cell are regarded as a top priority in science and engineering universities. At engineering colleges, it is a little different. Professors at engineering colleges hope that what they studied will be utilized in real life. Both values must be recognized.

Fifteen percent of the UNIST professors have founded startups. Even if the number is not large, the ratio is very high. When the UNIST was established, there was a culture of reluctance to allocate classes or academic service to those who started their own businesses at the UNIST. Currently, the school encourages and gives incentives to such professors. In my experience, research and start-up foundation hardly collide with each other.

Moon Sang-jin: It is worrisome that the military service exemption system for master's and doctorate degree holders in science and technology is gradually on the wane. Many small and medium-sized companies have been able to use the special military service system as an opportunity to secure core technologies. Small and medium-sized enterprises can hire high-quality human resources thanks to the special system. In some cases, such employees change jobs or move to other companies after completing their military service obligations but there were many cases where they remained at their companies.

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