It was confirmed that the ‘fast track’ plan, which the government had been promoting to rapidly distribute offshore wind power to expand renewable energy generation, was canceled due to a mismatch between ministries.
Although the current government has made haste to reduce carbon emissions by actively distributing offshore wind power generation by 2030, the policy measures to achieve this have been nullified.
It is predicted that the government’s carbon-neutral plan to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions will be difficult to achieve as the plan to expand offshore wind power generation is disrupted.
As a result of the Maeil Business News report on the 28th, last year, the government jointly announced the ‘offshore wind power generation plan’ with the main goal of building an offshore wind power plant as soon as possible. In the process of discussing the legislation of the special bill that is being pursued for this purpose, it was confirmed that the fast-track provision of ‘pre-environmental investigation’ was omitted.
The offshore wind power plant fast track is a measure that allows a power plant to be built even if it passes the environmental evaluation process, which is greatly simplified compared to the previous one. Initially, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Environment were planning to skip the rigorous strategic environmental impact assessment when selecting offshore wind farms, only through a pre-environmental survey, which has simplified procedures compared to the previous one.
The government, which has accelerated the expansion of the proportion of eco-friendly power generation, has put a lot of effort into solar power generation, which is easy to implement right away. However, at a time when the opposition of solar power generation is growing due to controversy over environmental destruction, offshore wind power generation has been actively promoted as another alternative.
Accordingly, the government was planning to reduce the time required for licensing offshore wind power generation from 6 to 7 years to 3 to 5 years.
President Moon Jae-in visited Ulsan and Shinan in Jeollanam-do in February and May of this year and announced his goal to quickly become one of the top five powerhouses in the field of offshore wind power generation.
At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO summit held earlier this month, it was also reaffirmed that it plans to more than double the amount of solar and wind power generation by 2025. However, there is not a single offshore wind power plant that was completed and put into operation this year.
As of September this year, wind power accounts for only 1.3% of the total power generation facilities.
Fast-track measures were implemented to overcome such delays. However, as this measure was scrapped after intergovernmental discussions, a ‘red light’ came on for the early supply of offshore wind power generation.
Currently, the government is said to be discussing the direction of abolishing the preliminary environmental assessment and conducting strategic environmental impact assessments and environmental impact assessments at sea according to the claim of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries that the same environmental impact assessments are required at sea as on land.
When fishermen-related groups such as the Fisheries Cooperative Federation strongly opposed offshore wind power generation, saying that it would interfere with fishing, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries opposed the Ministry of Environment’s plan.
There are concerns that a major setback in the supply of offshore wind power generation planned by the government will not be avoided. The government initially announced that it would introduce 12 GW (gigawatt) of offshore wind power, equivalent to 12 nuclear power plants, by 2030. The plan was to raise the proportion of eco-friendly power generation using solar and wind power to 30% of the total power generation by 2030.
An official from the Ministry of Environment said, “It is not easy to achieve the supply of wind power even if we hurry from now on.”
If there is a setback in the supply of offshore wind power generation, the government’s 2030 National Greenhouse Gas Reduction Goal (NDC) or ‘2050 Carbon Neutral’ realization is expected to be severely disrupted.
Hong Jong-ho, a professor at Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Environmental Studies, said, “As the whole country is in a hurry to achieve carbon neutrality, not reducing the licensing period for offshore wind power is a nonsensical measure. We have to do everything we can to expedite its dissemination,” he said.
In the ‘Renewable Energy 3020’ Strategy and ‘Offshore Wind Power Generation Plan’ announced in July last year, the government announced the introduction of 12 GW of offshore wind power generation by 2030. As it is upgraded to , offshore wind power generation is also in need of additional supply.
Seung-Hoon Yoo, a professor of energy policy at Seoul National University of Science and Technology, criticized “offshore wind power is a key axis for carbon reduction in the power generation sector.
The wind power industry is also struggling. An industry official said, “Entrepreneurs who started business on the news that the government is massively expanding offshore wind power generation are dying.” raised the
While the early supply of wind power generation in Korea is delayed, major countries are rushing to supply it. The Danish Energy Agency operates a ‘one-stop-shop’ system that handles all licensing and licensing processes required for offshore wind power projects, and is hastening to distribute the North Sea offshore wind power generation in a way that processes all related licenses and permits within 34 months.
On the other hand, domestic wind power generation is slowing down. An official from a wind power association said, “Due to the overlapping effects of COVID-19, there are only 25 MW of wind power plants in Korea that were completed and put into commercial operation this year, and there is no offshore wind power generation.” “There will be a major setback in the supply of wind power generation,” he said.
[박동환 기자 / 송민근 기자]
[ⓒ 매일경제 & mk.co.kr, 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]
