Republic of Korea, Photovoltaic technology status and prospects

Republic of Korea
Photovoltaic technology status and prospects
Jinsoo Song, Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER)

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General Framework

Fig. 1 - PV powered Green Village in Kwangju Metropolitan City under the 100 000 Rooftop Programme. Total 96,9 kW grid-connected PV systems are installed on the roof of 46 residential homes.

In 2004 and 2005, the implementation of the new national plan, “The 2nd Basic Plan for New & Renewable Energy Technology Development & Dissemination” with a target to attain 3 % share of New and Renewable Energy by year 2006, 5 % by year 2012 Government, Korea Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE), sharply increased the national budget for renewable energy to 196,4 billion KRW in 2004 and 324,4 billion KRW in 2005 compared to 119,3 billion KRW in 2003. MOCIE selected photovoltaics, hydrogen and fuel cell, and wind power as three main areas to develop and promote during the next 10 years in Korea. PV is especially expected to be relatively mature for near-term deployment and to be a promising and economically viable technology in the near future for Korean environmental and geographical conditions. Therefore, the Korean Government expects that PV has a major role in reducing environmental pollution and has been selected as a high priority programme.
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National Programme

Korea's renewed PV implementation plan is composed of 100 000 residential roof-tops and 70 000 commercial and industrial buildings, for a total capacity of 1,3 GW by the year 2012. The annual budget for the roof-top program increased to 6,3 billion KRW in 2004, 16 billion KRW in 2005 and will be 49 billion KRW in 2006. The new plan for this technological progress is divided into different steps focusing on developing the technology for mass distribution and commercialization of PV. In the short-term, PV cell R&D is focused on crystalline silicon. The target is to increase PV module efficiency from the current 12 % to 15 %, until the year 2006, and to 18 % until the year 2010. The cost target of the module is 5,4 USD/W until the year 2004, 3,3 USD/W until the year 2006 and 1,9 USD/W until the year 2010. Finally, targeted developed technologies will be commercialized by the year 2012.

Since 1993, the MOCIE has been implementing, via the KEMCO (Korea Energy Management Corporation), demonstration and field tests of various renewable energy technologies. In addition, the government has been encouraging and supporting local authorities to implement their own demonstration or field test projects under the framework of the “Local Energy Development Programme.” This programme aims in part to raise public awareness on renewable energy technologies and to develop indigenous renewable energy sources for each region. In both of these projects, PV technology remains the top priority.

The Public Building Obligation Programme: This programme was implemented in 2005 and was applied to newly installed public buildings larger than 3 000 sq. meters with and obligation to invest in renewable energy equipment, such as PV, at more than 5 % of the total building construction cost. As a case of this programme, a building in “Blue House, Presidential House” was modified to install a 15 KW PV System in 2005 and has been shown to the public for PV promotion as a guided tour of Blue House. By 2005, the total investment for renewable equipment was 68,6 billion KRW and PV was composed of 19,7 billion KRW. This programme will contribute to increase the Korean PV and Geothermal market in the coming years and provide a major BIPV opportunity for the “New Administration Complex City Plan” and the “Relocation of Public Enterprise” from 2010.
The Renewable Energy Field Test Programme: Several PV rooftop systems have been tested at the “Solar Energy Field Test Site” at Chosun University in Gwangju metropolitan city. System performances and reliability are tested and evaluated.
The Local Energy Development Programme: Under the local energy development project, a wide variety of PV systems including off-grid domestic, non-domestic and grid-connected systems were constructed (Fig. 1 & 2). In 2004, the government allocated more than 36,9 billion KRW for this programme, PV accounted for more than 43 %. Local authorities, in cooperation with the MOCIE, implemented a variety of PV system installation aimed at increasing public awareness on PV and to develop PV as indigenous renewable energy sources for their region. It is worthy to note that several local authorities started the planning of “Green Village” projects. The objective of this project is to construct a small-size solar village by using photovoltaic power systems and other renewable energy as much as possible. In 2004, three local authorities, Gwangju, Daegu metropolitan cities, mainly for PV and Jeju Island, mainly for wind power, were beneficiaries of “Green Village” projects.

As a collaborative project, known as DURE-Gobi Project with Mongolia, KIER has installed a PV (5kWp) - Wind (3kW) hybrid system and Solar Home Systems at an isolated village in the Gobi Desert in October 2003. With the Solar Village Project through the International Joint Project between Korea and Vietnam, KIER has installed 3kW PV system and 50W solar home systems in a remote area of Vietnam in 2003. The new international collaborative project with China (DURE-Tibet) has begun in 2004. The 100kWp grid-connected PV systems have been installed in Yangbijing, Tibet and the system performances will be monitored during a 3 year period.

Based on the results of DURE-Tibet project, Korea is planning to construct very large PV systems with a capacity of 1MW, in cooperation with the Tibetan local government, beginning in 2006.
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Research and development

Fig. 2 - The 479 kW grid-connected PV systems for a sewage treatment plant in Daegu Metropolitan City under the Local Energy Development Program in 2004: The PV provides about 1,1 % of the plant’s total electricity consumption.

The PV R&D projects are mainly supported by the MOCIE, and some basic research projects are supported by the MOST (Ministry of Science and Technology). Since 2004, the Korean Photovoltaics Development Organization (KPVDO) in Korea University has been a leading organization in planning and management of R&D projects as well as in demonstration and field test projects under contract with MOCIE and KEMCO. KPVDO, directed by Professor Donghwan Kim, carries out R&D activities more efficiently and promote cooperation among the government organizations, research institutes, universities and industries. The national budget for R&D and demonstration was 8,86 billion KRW in 2004 and 14,82 billion KRW in 2005. 21 projects have been executed with the participation of 24 companies, 7 national institutes and 17 universities.

The projects implemented in 2004 and 2005 included various categories. For the short- term commercialization, 7 projects have been implemented, covering high efficiency and low cost bulk silicon solar cell, Si ingot and wafer, transformer-less PCS, BIPV and roof- integrated module. For long-term and innovative goals, three projects have been implemented in the area of a-Si and CIGS thin-film, Dye-sensitized solar cells.

In addition, in the demonstration and infrastructure area, 11 programs have been carried out. The main topics are the Road Map for Standardization and Certification, a 1MW PV Power Plant Demonstration, Solar Cell Evaluation, PV Demonstration Site Infrastructure and Public Building Demonstration etc.
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Implementation

For the first time since 1992, the Korean PV market surpassed the over 1MW historical hurdle and has reached 2,553MW in 2004, according to an official report by KEMCO. The Korean market size will be in the 3-3,5MW range in 2004, according to the non-official industry information. The main change in 2004 was a big increase in electrification application; from 357KW in 2003 to 2,342KW covering 91,7 % of the total installation. Among the various off-grid non-domestic applications, marine application with lighthouses and street lighting were still the largest sectors of application; 161KW in 2004, followed by telecommunications, although relatively small, with less than 10KW installation. However, this application is no longer important in the market share, with 6,3 % in 2004, compared to 18,6 % in 2003.

Fig. 4 - The cumulative installed PV power in 3 sub-markets. In 2004, several dozens of grid-connected distributed systems with a capacity in the range of 3 kW to 400 kW were installed. Among them, 10 systems were for public office and university buildings and 310 systems were for rooftop systems on residential houses which increased from about 20 roof-top systems in 2003. In 2005, 870 roof-top systems were expected to be installed and over 3 000 systems in 2006, based on the government subsidy budget allocation. Grid-connected distributed sector has been intensively promoted under the framework of the “Renewable Energy Demonstration Programme” or the “Local Energy Development Programme,” and “Public Building Obligation Programme.”

The total cumulative installed PV power for each sub-market on the 31 December of each year, from 1992 to 2004 is shown in Figure 4.

The total installed power of PV systems in Korea was 8.534 kW at the end of 2004. The total PV power installed during the year 2004 was 2,553 kW, which is nearly 5 times higher than that achieved in the previous year (563 kW).
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Industry Status

Until 1999, the High Solar Company (independent from former LG Siltron Co. in May 1999) continued to manufacture PV cells, but this company stopped its operation in 2000. In 2001, there was no PV cell manufacturer in Korea. In 2002, two new companies entered into single crystalline Si cell production. Neskor Solar Co. produced 0,24 MW and Photon Semiconductor & Energy Co. 0,3 MW in 2003.

The latter, significantly increased its production capacity from 0,5 MW to 6,0 MW in 2004 and installed a second manufacturing line of 25 MW multicrystalline Si Solar Cell by the end of 2005. These two companies provided a part of their production to domestic module manufacturers and some to foreign companies. These two companies import wafers from foreign companies.

In 2004 and 2005, four new companies, namely, Symphony Solar Co., Hyundai Heavy Industries, Kyung Dong Solar and Unison entered the PV module manufacturing business and started their operations in 2005. Nominal production capacity per company would be more than 10MW per year but they had a cell supply problem and would not release any actual production results during year 2005, until now.

S-energy Co., LS Industries and Solartech upgraded and expanded their current production lines. At the end of 2005, total module production capacity was about 75 MW per year. In 2004, Korean manufacturers produced about 2,7 MW of PV modules. This was only an 18 % increase, compared to the previous year's production figure of 2,25 MW. This small expansion of PV module production was due to the bankruptcy of “ATS Solar Co.” This company produced about 1,4 MW PV modules with a production capacity of 3,0 MW in 2003.

Most of single and multicrystalline silicon PV cells were imported from foreign countries. The average PV module prices decreased about 6 % in 2004, compared to that of the previous year. The prices were 6 500 KRW/W in average.

In 2004, Hex Power Systems Co. was the only company to manufacture inverters for grid-connected systems. This company produced various products with a capacity 1 - 100 kW. The prices ranged between 2 million KRW/kVA for a size smaller than 1 kVA and 1,5 million KRW for larger than 100 kVA, depending on the inverter size. Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hanyang Electrics developed inverters for 3KW grid-connected systems and will enter the inverter market for roof-top systems. In 2005, Hex Power Systems, Hyundai Heavy Industries and Hanyang Electrics received a national certification title for 3KW inverters, which will be on the market in 2006.

Two companies were involved in producing inverters for stand-alone systems. In the case of inverters for stand-alone systems, the average price was about 2.2 Million KRW/kVA for a size larger than 10 kVA. There is one PV battery manufacturer, Global High-tech Co. that produces lead-acid batteries of a tubular plate stationary type. The unit price of the battery with a capacity 2 000Ah/100hr is about 1 000 kKRW. Concerning the supporting structures, PV system installers used their own type of support structures made from anodized aluminium or galvanized steel. That is why the price of the supporting structures is so multifarious.
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Future Outlook

Fig. 3 - Grid-connected 100 kWp PV systems installed at Yangbijing, Tibet by DURE-Tibet Project between Korea and China.

Under Korea's new national PV plan, the goal has been increased to 100 000 roofs and 70 000 buildings for a total capacity of 1,3 GW by the year 2012. The total capacity is broken down into different sectors. Three different sizes of systems will be developed such as 3 kWp for residential homes, 10 kWp for public buildings, and 20 kWp for industrial buildings. An explosive growth of the market is expected between 2006 and 2012; once the foundation is set into place by the year 2006. The Korean government recognizes that the PV industry will grow and take up to 10 % of the world market by the year 2012, with exports amounting to 3 billion USD and employing 50 000 people. The strategies for promoting the distribution of PV systems are described below. The whole programme will be managed and monitored by the experts group organized solely for the PV technology distribution.

Establish the foundation for mass distribution through developing PV systems for distributed electricity system. During 2001-2006, focus on developing the standardized systems for residential homes and for commercial buildings that have large potential demands.
Set up the test sites and villages for demonstration. Establish “green villages” throughout Korea starting from Daegu and Kwangju. For new buildings, encourage the installation of 10 kW PV systems and, for factory buildings, 20 kW PV systems.
Complete the regulatory system for promoting PV.
Maximize the subsidization programme that has a strong short-term effect. Further promotion should be pursued by “green pricing” and other tax incentives.