Development and Utilization of Wind Energy in Korea

Korea has a variety of favorable conditions for utilizing wind as energy. First of all, as a geographical characteristic, it is a peninsular country with its three frontiers surrounded by sea. Such a location makes the country influenced, all the year round, both by sea winds and by seasonal winds, so that it has a good possibility of putting its rich wind resources to use as an energy source. Particularly, in view of the results of observations and analysis of actual data about wind sources, it is quite possible to build wind paver plants in many regions across the country, such as inhabited islands dotted on its southern and western coasts around the Korean peninsular, a number of uninhabited islets attached the main islands, large-scaled reclaimed lands, and major inland areas. In Korea, the attempt to develop the technology of wind paver generation started in the 1970's. It was since 1988, when the Law on the promotion of Alternative Energy Development was enacted, that research and development activities for employing the wind force as a part of energy source have got into full swing. At that moment, however, due to the low level of domestic technological development, such efforts were mainly focused on the attainment of basic technologies with regard to wind power generation. Recently, there have been many noticeable changes in the international as well as domestic environments, such as the conclusion of the International Climate Treaty and the increase in public concerns of natural environment. It is quite possible to predict that the demand for wind paver generation will increase in the near future. Therefore, recognizing that wind, as a clean energy source, can be a promising method for coping with the International Climate Treaty and for replacing the fossil fuel, oil, this essay investigates the development history of wind paver generation systems and the status of technological development in Korea and presents an appropriate model for the development of the paver generation system that can compete with other energy sources.