South Korea's newly installed photovoltaic capacity is about 4.1GW in 2020

    The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) estimates that the new photovoltaic Solar Power For Home System system connected to the grid in South Korea last year was about 4.1 GW, and the cumulative installed photovoltaic capacity reached about 15.6 GW. If confirmed by official statistics, 2020 will be the country’s most successful year on record, with 3.8 GW of photovoltaic installations in 2019 and 2.4 GW of photovoltaic installations in 2018.

    Yeji Kim, a researcher at Seoul-based Solutions for Our Climate, told Photovoltaic Magazine: “Last year was the third year that the Korean government announced a 20% renewable energy plan by 2030, which led to the prosperity of solar energy.”

    However, this year’s growth rate may be lower than 2020 because some regional governments are restricting the development of utility-scale projects through new regulations for project site selection. The analyst quoted the latest data from the Korea Energy Agency (KEA) that the newly installed photovoltaic capacity reached 0.56 GW in the first quarter of this year, while in the same period of 2020, new photovoltaic systems totaled more than 1 GW.

    It is understood that South Korea currently plans to install 30.8 GW of solar energy by 2030. This ambitious goal is expected to be achieved through the establishment of giant solar parks, such as the 2.1 GW floating solar project and the 3 GW ground photovoltaic array announced for Saemangeum.

    Recently, the South Korean government announced a plan to add another 2.1 GW of floating photovoltaic power generation by 2030. In addition, MOTIE plans to allocate approximately 4 GW of solar power generation capacity in two photovoltaic tenders this year, which may be launched in April and October. The ministry also recently announced that it hopes to help develop unsubsidized solar energy by allowing domestic electricity consumers to purchase electricity from renewable energy power producers through power purchase agreements (PPA).