[Yonhap News Photo ]
A presidential advisory panel put the proportion of clean and renewable energy in generating South Korea's total electricity at 28 percent by 2030 to support President Moon Jae-in's campaign aimed at reducing the use of fossil and nuclear energy.
By 2023, power utility firms are required to generate 10 percent of their electricity with solar and other renewable energy, the State Affairs Planning Advisory Committee said in policy recommendations which set the course of policy for Moon's government.
The panel proposed that power utility firms should generate a certain amount of electricity with renewable energy while government and public organizations are required to build in-house solar energy storage systems by 2020.
Moon said the policy recommendations would become a "blueprint and compass" for his administration. He has promised to replace old nuclear and coal-powered thermal power plants with clean and renewable energy sources and closed South Korea's oldest 580-megawatt reactor on June 18. Industrial and academic communities have challenged his campaign to reduce South Korea's heavy dependence on nuclear energy which accounts for about 30 percent of its power supply.
Under Moon's "nuclear exit" policy, the cabinet decided on June 27 to stop the construction of two reactors, slated for completion in 2022 near the southeastern port city of Busan, pending public hearings and debate for three months.
Nuclear plant workers fear massive layoffs and the collapse of a nuclear energy industry which has accumulated world-class technologies for decades. Opponents claimed financial losses would be far higher than a government estimate.
The presidential panel did not budge, calling for strong steps to suspend the planned construction of six more reactors and shut down old reactors. Other reactors in operation would be under close surveillance by the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, a state watchdog.
Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
임장원
cwlim34@ajunews.com
