Yang Je-heon, right, director of EcoPro, speaks during Session 1 of the Korea Times Forum at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in central Seoul, Wednesday. Kshitij Dua, left, associate partner of McKinsey & Company, moderated the session, while David Jones, second from left, country manager of RWE Renewables Korea, and Jerng Dong-wook, professor of school of energy systems engineering at Chung-Ang University, along with Yang, joined as panelists. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Energy industry officials and scholars emphasized that neither renewable energy nor nuclear power alone can achieve the country's carbon neutrality goals by 2050, highlighting that both energy sources are complementary and essential for reaching this target, according to experts who participated in the Korea Times Forum on Wednesday.

To support the dual initiative of generating electricity in eco-friendly ways and addressing the escalating climate crisis, experts noted that further development of technologies for storing excess power is essential. This stored energy can be utilized later when needed, ensuring a more sustainable energy future for both the country and the planet.

Electricity demand in Korea which is projected to double by 2050, reaching approximately 1,200 terawatt-hours, will need to be met by two key resources: renewable energy and nuclear power, according to Jerng Dong-wook, professor of school of energy systems engineering at Chung-Ang University.

During the first session of the forum, titled "Challenges and opportunities in expanding sustainable energy solutions," Jerng said that because Korea is like "an island with (an) isolated power grid," running the country entirely on renewable energies requires too much backup power and generates unbearable financial costs. Likewise, depending wholly on nuclear power is implausible considering the antinuclear public sentiment among citizens.

"How much each of the two energy resources will take a share of the country's entire energy output will be decided by the country's financial standing and public sentiment," Jerng said.

Jerng Dong-wook, professor of school of energy systems engineering at Chung-Ang University, speaks during Session 1 of the Korea Times Forum at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in central Seoul, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

David Jones, country manager of German offshore wind power developer RWE Renewables' Korean office, also admitted that nuclear and renewable energy should be complementary to each other. He said that nuclear is carbon-free but not renewable and the country needs "both of these because both play a very clear role in helping Korea decarbonize and remain a globally competitive economy."

"The problem with renewable energies is their intermittency," Yang Je-heon, director of marketing office at EcoPro, a secondary battery and energy company, said.

The experts agreed on nuclear power's major role in carbon neutrality.

Jerng said that Korea's nuclear industry has built 16 new plants over the past 20 years, benefiting from its strong experience and supply chains. This has reduced the cost of constructing nuclear power plants in Korea to $3,200 per kilowatt, compared to $7,500 per kilowatt for France's EPR and $13,600 per kilowatt for the U.S.'s Vogtle. Additionally, the base price of nuclear power in Korea is now 55 won ($0.04) per kilowatt-hour, which is a third of the cost of renewable energy and a quarter of that of liquefied natural gas.

As to renewable energy, offshore wind power has drawn particular support from the experts because of its low application in practice — less than 10 percent of the average of OECD countries, according to Jerng — despite its high potential based on the country's geography, which is in favor of the power and technological advancement.

"If we were having this discussion 10 years ago, we would've said offshore wasn't right for Korea. But technology has evolved to the point we can now capture lower wind speeds and generate electricity efficiently from them. Most engineering challenges have been overcome," Jones said.

"But the technologies for turbines should remain up-to-date. Many turbine suppliers cannot test their technologies enough before the next model comes up. We should stabilize those technologies and allow them to remain profitable."

Yang Je-heon, director of marketing office at EcoPro, speaks during Session 1 of the Korea Times Forum at the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry in central Seoul, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

While nuclear and renewable energy should jointly haul the nation's future energy output, what is equally important is storing electricity for future usage — especially when energy demands peak — to offset the renewables' inconsistent nature of power generation, according to the experts.

They said the country already possesses a comparatively superior level of technologies and value chains that can support the future power supply with energy storage system (ESS) measures like secondary batteries.

"Korea is the only country in the world (that) has achieved balanced breakthroughs across secondary battery's entire value chain, from making the battery itself to having necessary materials, developing battery-based ESS technologies and prerequisite infrastructures," Yang said.

"What needs further improvement is how to connect the power generation resources to ESS. (A) virtual power plant is a good example of such solution (which) many companies are paying attention to right now."

The experts said that renewable energies must be backed by ESS to guarantee their economic efficiency and stable power supply.

Yang said that the growing number of electric vehicles (EVs) in the country offers a feasible path toward achieving the goal. He explained that the basic materials used in secondary batteries for EVs and ESS are the same, making them compatible.

Jerng added that by 2030, the number of EVs in Korea is expected to reach nearly 4.2 million. Together with hydrogen vehicles, they are projected to replace at least 85 percent of internal combustion engines by 2050, in line with the government's road map to achieve carbon neutrality by that year.

"EV batteries run for as (long) as 15 years, but most of the expired batteries still have 85 to 95 percent of power remaining. Reusing them for (the) purpose of ESS would greatly contribute to carbon neutrality," Yang said.

"Used EV batteries will start flooding in from 2030. Until then, we must come up with ways to recycle the batteries for the ESS function. The purpose also requires diagnosing used batteries' remaining power fast and accurate enough to make it marketable."