• Journal of Technology Innovation
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.1-36
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• 2019

In line with the international community's movement to reduce greenhouse gas emission, Korea implemented FIT(Feed in Tariff) in 2002 as part of its renewable energy development project. Although the policy had shifted to full-scale RPS(Renewable Portfolio Standards) in 2012, policymakers are still seeking changes due to policy ineffectiveness. While previous studies explain sudden policy changes through external factors, recent research sheds light on internal factors in the process of policy transition. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that are responsible for rapidly changing policies in latecomer nations. In order to find this, we look at the case of transition from the FIT to the RPS in Korea's expansion of renewable energy policy. As a result of the research, it is confirmed that the Top-Down decision making system of Korea and the external regulatory change cause rapid policy transition. By looking at these variables, we propose useful implications for policymakers to minimize the policy failure in future policy design and evolution.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.86-93
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• 2020

The investment in solar and wind generation is rapidly increasing with government's renewable expansion policy and Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). Since the large penetration of solar and wind generation increases the variability and uncertainty of supply and demand balance in power system, the government is pursuing the policy of supplying energy storage system (ESS) linked to renewable energy. ESS contributes to the ease of transmission and distribution grid by shifting PV generation from daytime to evening hours. Recently, the declining market price of REC as ESS incentive, policies to cut down incentives and limited ESS storage due to fire events lead to the aggravation of long-term profitability, thus working as a barrier of ESS spreading. In this study, the factors affecting the profit of ESS are analyzed and brief indicators are derived. Based on the indicators, the profit changes are analyzed considering the variation of REC market price and REC incentive weights. Based on the profit change with respect to the increase of ESS capacity, economical ESS installation capacity is suggested.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.26 no.9
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• pp.690-700
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• 2013

This study reviewed how the changes of the government policy on solar power generation projects affected the annual mandatory quotas of the regulated power providers under the RPS (renewable portfolio standard) system and analysed economic feasibility of the investment for meeting their quotas as compared to the case of non-regulated power providers. The analysis results showed that under the discount rate of 7.5%, which was used for the annual national electricity plans for the recent years, both the regulated and non-regulated power providers achieved economic feasibility under both the NPV (net present value) method and the real option pricing method. It was also shown that higher profitability was attained by non-regulated power providers than by their regulated counterparts, which can be attributable to the fact that regulated providers are required to out-source 50% of the total quota. The results of this study are considered to be useful for establishing a meaningful mid term or long term strategy for the future of solar power generation linked to the current RPS system.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.29 no.7
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• pp.8-13
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• 2015

Recently, because a renewable power source must operate as a constant rate in accordance with RPS(Renewable Portfolio Standard), the study of the renewable power sources has been ongoing. Especially because of noise of wind turbine, troubleshooting, and urban greening business, research related with small wind turbine are underway. The economics and reliability are important parts for the activation of small wind turbine, such as solar energy. In this paper, by analyzing the temperature variations for each location and efficiency of power conversion devices in accordance with short period wind speed changes in simulation test, we reviewed the safety about temperature variations of wind generator and the method of selection of power converter.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.67 no.1
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• pp.16-21
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• 2018

As a result of the Fukushima disaster and climate change due to excessive greenhouse gases, international energy affairs are currently focused on establishing safe and environment-friendly policies. To achieve this, Republic of Korea has established a plan for environment-friendly energy supplies. It is expected that policy enforcement will be accompanied by an increase in energy supply costs. An analysis of energy supply costs is necessary before the establishment of any national energy policy. This paper analyzes and compares the energy supply costs accompanying environmental and nuclear energy policies, based on the Korean National Energy Master Plan and the Basic Plan for Long-Term Electricity Supply and Demand, in order to understand the implications of these national energy policies.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.18-28
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• 2014

Renewable Portfolio Standards(RPS) is a regulation that requires a renewable energy generated from eco-friendly energy sources such as biomass, wind, solar, and geothermal. The RPS mechanism generally is an obligatory policy that places on electricity supply companies to produce a designated fraction of their electricity from renewable energies. The domestic companies to supply electricity largely rely on wood pellets in order to implement the RPS in spite of undesirable situation of lack of wood resources in Korea. This means that the electricity supply companies in Korea must explore new biomass as an alternative to wood. Palm kernel shell (PKS) and empty fruit bunch (EFB) as oil palm wastes can be used as raw materials used for making pellets after their thermochemical treatment like torrefaction. Torrefaction is a pretreatment process which serves to improve the properties including heating value and energy densification of these oil palm wastes through a mild pyrolysis at temperature typically ranging between 200 and $300^{\circ}C$ in the absence of oxygen under atmospheric pressure. Torrefaction of oil palms wastes at above $200^{\circ}C$ contributed to the increase of fixed carbon with the decrease of volatile matters, leading to the improvement of their calorific values over 20.9 MJ/kg (=5,000 kcal/kg) up to 25.1 MJ/kg (=6,000 kcal/kg). In particular, EFB sensitively responded to torrefaction because of its physical properties like fiber bundles, compared to PKS and hardwood chips. In conclusion, torrefaction treatment of PKS and EFB can greatly contribute to the implement of RPS of the electricity supply companies in Korea through the increased co-firing biomass with coal.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.61-98
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• 2011

This study conducts economic evaluation of alternatives for $CO_2$ reduction of thermal power plants. Two alternatives in reducing $CO_2$ emission are considered for the evaluation under the RPS(Renewable Portfolio Standard) system; one is to perform renewable energy quotas and another is to construct green thermal power plants using CCS(Carbon Capture and Sequestration). As evaluation methods, DCF(Discount Cash Flow) and ROPM(Real Options Pricing Method) are employed. At a discount rate of 7.5% applied to the Electricity Supply and Demand Plan, it is shown that green thermal power generation has economic dominance under both evaluation methods.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.91-111
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• 2020

While the renewable energy portfolio standard (RPS) is in place to expand the scale of renewable energy generation, the power producer can obtain the renewable energy credit (REC) and use it as an incentive to operate the facility. RECs secured by solar power generation can be traded through spot market or fixed price contracts, and, in the spot market trading, power producers are exposed to the uncertainty of REC spot price. In this study, real option analysis is conducted to analyze the optimal threshold of REC spot price for the conversion of REC trading method by power producer considering the uncertainty of REC spot price. We calculated the optimal threshold of REC spot price that can convert the trading method of REC from spot market to fixed price contract. In conclusion, the spot market trading is a rational trading method when considering the uncertainty of REC price, but the fixed price bidding is a rational trading method when not considering the uncertainty of REC price.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.132-135
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• 2009

Development of biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel for commercial uses is a recent phenomenon. However, the growth of ethanol and biodiesel has been impressive during the period 2000-2007yr. Globally, production of biodiesel stands around 8.3 billion liters. Europe leads the world in biodiesel production with 80% share of the global biodiesel production total. Today biodiesel fuels have been in commercial use in many countries and recently the world-wide biodiesel market has experienced considerable growth, which is partly due to various tax concession programs and other financial incentives. In Korea, biodiesel has already been used for transportation fuel, but not used for power generation fuel yet. Korean government has a strategy for renewable energy propagation, especially the goal of power generation amount by renewable energy is 3% of total power production by 2012. This paper focuses on the estimation study for effect of using biodiesel as power generation fuel. The study also has the plan to replace the fuel of thermal power plant, gas turbine and distributed power generation system. As the increase of biodiesel fuel, I look forward to environment-friendly power generation and the strategy of Renewable Portfolio Standards(RPS).

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.50-60
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• 2021

This study investigated the reference case in the UK where legality and sustainability were systematically established for forest biomass represented by wood pellets. The UK is the country that best utilizes the trade value of wood pellets based on sustainability, with bioenergy accounting for 31% of total renewable energy production. The UK imported wood pellet, estimated 8,697 thousand tons in 2019. The UK government has continuously improved the renewable generation policy system to ensure the sustainability of wood pellets. The weighted average greenhouse gas emissions of a UK biomass power plant that received a Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) in 2018-19 was 26.71 gCO2e/MJ. These power plants are expected to meet the upper limit of 72.2 gCO2e/MJ by 2025. To issue an ROC, the biomass power plant must demonstrate that 70% of its total biofuel usage is sustainable. The UK uses the Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP) certification system, which is gradually expanding to other European countries, to prove the sustainability of biomass energy fuels. Global wood pellet production with SBP certification in 2019 was 10.5 Mt. This trend has significant implications for introducing additional sustainability into the wood pellet policy of South Korea.