Solar Power Heats Water and Homes
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As solar technologies improve and costs fall, South Korea’s plans for solar energy are heating up.
In the coastal city of Gangneung, South Korea, look up and you’re likely to see solar panels or a solar water heater on the roof of at least one house.
The rice patties to the North of Gangneung offer up a view of a dozen such solar power facilities on the rooftops at the edge of one of the city’s newest neighborhoods.
If the sight of so many solar homes doesn’t convince you that South Korea is serious about solar, consider the newly proposed 20 MW solar plant. When it’s completed later this year, it will rival Spain as the largest photovoltaic solar plant in the world.
According to BP, South Korea’s national goal to produce 1 GW of solar energy by 2012 would make it the world’s tenth largest solar market. Even more ambitiously, the country hopes to reach 4 GW of solar production by 2020 and 18 GW by 2030.
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Of course, in this ambitiously growing economy, development of solar energy has to make good economic sense. South Korea already relies heavily on oil imports from the Middle East for energy, so importing solar technology as well might be a financial burden and not a blessing.
That’s why South Korea is aggressively seeking its own solar production market. From 2006 to 2007, imports dropped from 61 to 45 percent for residential solar panels. According to the Electronic Engineering Times-Asia, this drop in imports was paralleled by a rise in domestically produced solar panels. In the same time frame, the country increased solar technology export revenues from 45 million USD to 180 million USD.
If it’s able to reach it’s 18 GW goal by 2030, South Korea foresees an attractive export market of 6.3 billion USD.
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