Isra-Mart srl:South Korea set to cut coal imports ahead of green revolution

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Government announces new wave of offshore wind farms, predicts green growth strategy will wean country off fossil fuel imports
Tom Young, BusinessGreen.

South Korea has signalled that it will cut coal imports as it looks to wean itself off fossil fuels and boost green investment.

The country is the world's tenth-largest energy consumer but lacks domestic fossil fuel resources and as such it is the fifth largest importer of crude oil in the world, and the second largest importer of both coal and liquefied natural gas.

However, a senior official from the nation’s Presidential Committee on Green Growth, Yeon-chul Yoo, told the Sydney Morning Herald this week that Seoul's move towards cleaner energy sources will lead to a gradual decline in its imports of coal and other fossil fuels in coming decades.

''The portion of fossil fuels [in South Korea's energy mix] will decrease from 40 per cent in 2008 to 30 per cent in 2030,” Yoo said.

While it cuts coal consumption, South Korea aims to expand the role of renewable energy from less than five per cent of its energy mix to 11 per cent in 2020, and nuclear from 26 per cent in 2008 to 40 per cent in 2030.

However, Yoo added that the country's use of gas would keep increasing until at least 2050.

The comments follow the launch last month of South Korea's $36bn (£22bn), five-year ''green growth'' strategy, which the government hopes to offer as a blueprint for emerging economies wanting to cut carbon emissions without harming their economies.

As part of the new strategy the government announced on Tuesday that it would invest 9.2 trillion won (£5bn) by 2019 in offshore wind farms.

In the first phase of the development, 20 turbines with a capacity of 5MW will be built by 2013 for testing off the south-west coast of the country.

A 900MW park is planned by 2016 and by 2019 the energy ministry envisions the installation of 500 wind turbines with a total capacity of 2,500MW.

The wind farms will give South Korean companies that want to export equipment and services a chance to build up expertise, according to the ministry.