(SEOUL=NEWSIS) Korea’s central and local governments and private companies will build an eco-friendly energy town by capitalizing on new and renewable energy and jointly respond to climate change by creating next-generation solar cells.

According to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) on June 3, it held a groundbreaking ceremony for an eco-friendly energy town with Jincheon County and signed a business agreement with North Chungcheong Province to facilitate an eco-friendly, energy-based creative economy.

The ministry will invest a total of KRW 13.5 billion (USD 12.1 million) to build the town on 72,000㎡ of land in Jincheon / Eumseong Innovation City by 2018. The town will be the nation’s first to use various new and renewable energy sources, including solar energy, solar heat, geothermal heat and sewage waste heat, to produce and supply energy for heating and hot water.

The MSIP will develop renewable energy convergence technology and periodic heat storage technology and establish by 2016 a test complex that will be on a test run from 2017 to 2018, before technologies are transferred to Jincheon.

Periodic heat storage technology, which will be developed for the first time in Korea, stores leftover heat energy from the spring and autumn months to be used during winter. The ministry expects the technology to effectively respond to seasonal energy demand.

It also plans to standardize renewable energy convergence technology and develop a model for its industrial use, before supplying it to relevant industries. The ultimate goal is to develop the eco-friendly energy town into a business model.

Jincheon County will support the securing of the site and construction of the energy town. It aims to turn the town into a landmark for the regional energy industry as well as for regional tourism and education starting from 2018.

The government will boost investment in the technological development of next generation solar cells, the new growth engine of the solar cell market. It will also implement new strategies to expand cooperation with companies.

The MSIP will increase investment in the research and development (R&D) of next-generation solar cells to ensure that Korean solar cells record sales of KRW 600 billion by 2020, accounting for 2 percent of the global solar cell market.

Therefore, it will increase the R&D budget from KRW 10.7 billion in 2014 to KRW 15.2 billion in 2015. A total of KRW 100 billion will be invested in R&D to develop next generation solar cells.

The government and companies will exchange solar cell-related technologies to strengthen national technological competitiveness. A team called the Multi-scale Energy System Research Team for the MSIP’s Global Frontier Project will sign letters of intent with six companies, including LG Chem, OCI and Kolon Industries.

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