According to the national energy plan announced in January 2014, the renewable energy target, 11 percent of the total energy supply from renewable sources by 2035, was reaffirmed.
To reach this goal, the government is focusing on initiatives in the following four areas:
- strategic R&D and commercialization;
- promotion of industrialization and market creation;
- promotion of exports of new and renewable energy products; and
- infrastructure development.
The total budget for renewable energy in 2015 has reached KRW7.8 trillion (EUR619.09 million, USD697.2 million) to develop technologies; support renewable energy distribution, and promote entering overseas markets. The government also supports overseas renewable energy business for small and medium-sized enterprises with a budget of KRW10 billion in 2015.
The Financial Support Program for Renewable Energy in South Korea has a total budget for 2015 of KRW6.4 billion for R&D support, KRW319.2 billion for the feed-in tariff, KRW115 billion for soft loans, and KRW102.9 billion for distribution support.
Additionally, as a part of the 2009 budget, the government pledged KRW94.3 billion (USD72 million) for the One Million Green Homes Project. The intent is to build one million homes by 2020 that use one of the following renewable energy technologies: solar thermal, solar photovoltaic, geothermal, biomass and wind energy. Each year, the government will set a new budget for the coming year. The budget in 2014 is KRW54.9 billion, and the cumulative budget for the Project reached KRW671.2 billion from 2004 to 2014.
The green homes being built are environment-friendly and use new and renewable energy resources. In addition, green homes create no carbon emissions and use less energy, water and natural resources.
The Korean government has shown its willingness to support renewable energy projects. For example, the government provided circa $US293 million of funding towards the Sihwa Lake Tidal Power Station which is the world’s largest tidal power installation and contributed a significant portion of the $8.2 billion need to fund a 500 turbine off-shore wind project off the country’s west coast.