• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.11 no.11
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• pp.37-52
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• 2013

Prior to full-scale implementation of smart grid, the Korean government is conducting a smart grid testbed in Jeju island. However, the participants of the ongoing program are skeptical about the success of the expansion of smart grid. The concern rises from various reasons; the limits of the Korean electricity market mainly led by both the government and KEPCO, high stability and reliability of the existing electricity grid, insufficient utilization of renewable energy, and public fear of raised electricity bills. Five key issues in regards to facilitating the Korean smart grid market are extracted and evaluated. The issues are conflict of interest among participants, the effect of introducing real-time pricing, lack of customer participation of demand response, and absence of business models.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.453-460
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to analyze the potential quantity of Korean Offset Credits (KOC) resulting from Certified Emission Reductions (CER) in 98 domestic Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects that were registered with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as of the end of 2016. Our results show that the total amount of potential KOC is 62,774 kt CO2eq. The potential KOC is only 23.4% of the total CER Issuance. During the first phase, this will be 3.2% of the allocated volume. This is because many projects are related to Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), HFC-23, and adipic acid N2O. There is a strong bias in some sectors and projects which could act as market distortion factors. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the target CDM project and activate non CDM offset projects. RPS projects bring fundamental changes to the energy sector, and it is worth reconsidering their acceptability. A wide variety of policy incentives are needed to address strong biases toward certain sectors and projects. The offset scheme has the advantage of allowing entities to reduce their GHG emissions cost effectively through a market mechanism as well as enabling more entities to participate in GHG reduction efforts both directly and indirectly. In contrast, having an inadequate offset scheme range and size might decrease the effort on GHG reduction or concentrate available resources on specific projects. As such, it is of paramount importance to design and operate the offset scheme in such a way that it reflects the situation of the country.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.10 no.7
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• pp.33-41
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to analyse the state of the energy industry and to determine the efficiency of its functioning on the basis of energy conservation principle and application of innovative technologies aimed at improving the ecological modernisation of agricultural sectors of Kazakhstan. The research methodology is based on an integrated approach of financial and economic evaluation of the effectiveness of the investment project, based on calculation of elasticity, total costs and profitability, as well as on comparative, graphical and system analysis. The current stage is characterised by widely spread restructuring processes of electric power industry in many countries through introduction of new technical installations of energy facilities and increased government regulation in order to enhance the competitive advantage of electricity market. Electric power industry features a considerable value of creating areas. For example, by providing scientific and technical progress, it crucially affects not only the development but also the territorial organisation of productive forces, first of all the industry. In modern life, more than 90% of electricity and heat is obtained by Kazakhstan's economy by consuming non-renewable energy resources: different types of coal, oil shale, oil, natural gas and peat. Therefore, it is significant to ensure energy security, as the country faces a rapid fall back to mono-gas structure of fuel and energy balance. However, energy resources in Kazakhstan are spread very unevenly. Its main supplies are concentrated in northern and central parts of the republic, and the majority of consumers of electrical power live in the southern and western areas of the country. However, energy plays an important role in the economy of industrial production and to a large extent determines the level of competitive advantage, which is a promising condition for implementation of energy-saving and environmentally friendly technologies. In these circumstances, issues of modernisation and reforms of this sector in Kazakhstan gain more and more importance, which can be seen in the example of economically sustainable solutions of a large local monopoly company, significant savings in capital investment and efficiency of implementation of an investment project. A major disadvantage of development of electricity distribution companies is the prevalence of very high moral and physical amortisation of equipment, reaching almost 70-80%, which significantly increases the operating costs. For example, while an investment of 12 billion tenge was planned in 2009 in this branch, in 2012 it is planned to invest more than 17 billion. Obviously, despite the absolute increase, the rate of investment is still quite low, as the total demand in this area is at least more than 250 billion tenge. In addition, industrial infrastructure, including the objects of Kazakhstan electric power industry, have a tangible adverse impact on the environment. Thus, since there is a large number of various power projects that are sources of electromagnetic radiation, the environment is deteriorated. Hence, there is a need to optimise the efficiency of the organisation and management of production activities of energy companies, to create and implement new technologies, to ensure safe production and provide solutions to various environmental aspects. These are key strategic factors to ensure success of the modern energy sector of Kazakhstan. The contribution of authors in developing the scope of this subject is explained by the fact that there was not enough research in the energy sector, especially in the view of ecological modernisation. This work differs from similar works in Kazakhstan in the way that the proposed method of investment project calculation takes into account the time factor, which compares the current and future value of profit from the implementation of innovative equipment that helps to bring it to actual practise. The feasibility of writing this article lies in the need of forming a public policy in the industrial sector, including optimising the structure of energy disbursing rate, which complies with the terms of future modernised development of the domestic energy sector.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.60-67
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• 2010

For sustainable use of the resources of uninhabited islands of Korea, their ecological economic potential needs to be fully integrated into their management policy and the carrying capacity of the islands should be evaluated before using or developing them. The emergy methodology was used to evaluate the ecological economic value and carrying capacity of Sungap-do which is an uninhabited island in Incheon, Korea. The system boundary for the emergy evaluation of the island included the sea area within 1km from the high tide level, following the management boundary for the uninhabited islands of Korea stipulated in the Law on the Conservation and Management of Uninhabited Islands. The total renewable emergy input to Sungap-do was $1.04{\times}10^{20}$ sej/yr from tidal energy. The annual ecological economic contribution of the island was evaluated high at 29.9 billion Em￦/yr. If Sungap-do were developed to the national average, its carrying capacity was 6,586 persons at the current living standard of Korea. The carrying capacity of Sungap-do for the long-term sustainability scenario was 2,337 persons at the same living standard as in the developed scenario. When only emergy contribution of the land area was considered, the carrying capacity of Sungap-do sharply decreased to 14 persons for the developed scenario and 5 persons for the long-term sustainability scenario. The carrying capacity of the uninhabited islands of Korea including Sungap-do, thus, needs to be considered from the initial stage of utilization or development projects to sustain the ecosystem benefits and their sustainable uses.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.12-21
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• 2023

Green remodeling proposed in the Korean New Deal is a project to build or remodel eco-friendly and energy-efficient buildings using renewable energy facilities and high-performance insulation for public buildings. The government intends to achieve the carbon emission reduction target by conducting green remodeling. Major overseas cities that conduct green remodeling are actively promoting technology support and promotion along with energy performance evaluation according to building characteristics, subsidies for private revitalization, and tax benefits. With this background, the analysis of the current status and problems of the green remodeling project was performed and the Activation factors of Green Remodeling were derived from survey results. This study suggested strategic measures such as a participation of civil society, promotion, and priority selection of administration and policy measures such as a leading role of the public sector, expanding support for the socially underprivileged, and financial support and tax benefits. And this study results are expected to be utilized as basic data to promote the green remodeling project.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.138-147
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• 2007

An emergy concept was used to evaluate the environment and economy of the Han River basin in Korea and to suggest policy perspectives far the sustainable utilization of its environment and associated estuarine ecosystem. The economy of the basin used $5.19{\times}10^{23}\;sej/yr$ of emergy in 2005. The economy of the Han River basin was heavily dependent on outside energy sources from foreign countries and other parts of Korea, with internal sources, renewable and nonrenewable, contributing only 15.6% to the total emergy use. The basin's trade balance in terms of emergy showed trade surplus, whereas there was a deficit in monetary terms. The population of the Han River basin was far greater than the carrying capacity calculated using the emergy flow, with renewable carrying capacity only at 1.8% of the basin's population and developed carrying capacity at 14.3%. The economy of the basin imposed a substantial stress on its environment, with an environmental loading ratio of 54.8. Overall, the economy of the Han River basin was not sustainable with an emergy sustainability of 0.02. These are reflected in lower quality of living expressed in the emergy term than the national average. Deconcentration of population and economic activities is needed to reduce environmental stress on the environment of the basin and its valuable estuarine ecosystem. Policies to restore ecosystem productivity of the basin are also needed to ensure the sustainability of the basin's economic activities and the sustainable utilization of the Han River estuary. In this regard, it is urgently needed for the Korean government to implement sustainable management measures for the Han River estuary, a well-preserved, productive natural estuarine ecosystem in Korea.

• Environmental and Resource Economics Review
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.147-176
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• 2019

This paper uses research on the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) in South Korea to conduct a simulation analysis on the impact of nuclear power dependency and usage rates on the social costs of power generation. We compare the $7^{th}$ basic plan for long-term electricity supply and demand, which was designed to increase nuclear power generation, to the $8^{th}$ basic plan for long-term electricity supply and demand that decreased nuclear power generation and increased renewable energy generation in order to estimate changes in social costs and electricity rates according to the power generation mix. Our environmental generation mix simulation results indicate that social costs may increase by 22% within 10 years while direct generation cost and electricity rates based on generation and other production costs may increase by as much as 22% and 18%, respectively. Thus we confirm that the power generation mix from the $8^{th}$ basic plan for long-term electricity supply and demand compared to the $7^{th}$ plan increases social costs of generation, which include environmental external costs.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.29-42
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• 2022

The government promotes the 2050 carbon-neutral policy. Therefore, the concern to convert livestock manure into energy is increasing for the reduction of greenhouse gases generated in the livestock industry sector. In this study, the economic feasibility of the livestock manure solid fuel power generation facility, which is a major consumer of livestock manure solid fuel, was assessed to expand the demand for livestock manure solid fuel. The production cost of livestock manure solid fuel showed the lowest production cost of 97.4 thousand won/ton when dried using solid fuel at a 200 ton/day scale bio-drying facility. The livestock manure solid fuel power generation facility showed economic feasibility at a REC weight of 1.5 in the case of the bio-drying facility, so it was necessary to set a REC weight of 1.5 or more to expand the demand for livestock manure solid fuel. The conversion of livestock manure into solid fuel has various environmental benefits, such as the reduction of greenhouse gases and the effect of reducing non-point pollutants in the water system. Therefore, in order to expand livestock manure solid fuel production facility, it was required to review the feasibility including various environmental benefits.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.227-235
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• 2016

This paper emphasized the necessity of the marine spatial planning (MSP) through the analysis of the major developmental projects which could make a contradiction based on the adequacy of the site selection and environmental impacts. The conflicting affairs between space utilization and management plan happen in the following ways: marine renewable energy development, sand mining, reclamation, construction of golf course in coastal area, thermal effluent and waste heat, erosion causing port development. The conflict of stakeholder continues caused by the accumulated environmental impact. For the reasons mentioned above, we found two things. First, it is necessary to comprehend the fact of developmental planning and MSP. Second, it is still unsatisfactory to connect the relevance of laws related to the spatial planning. For the reinforcement of marine environmental policy management, it is necessary to consolidate the property of site selection and assessment of developmental scale. Especially, while the strategic environmental assessment is in progress based on site selection and property of scale, consistent diagnosis is needed in the following concerns: the fact of the marine spatial planning, the relevance between national developmental plan and regional developmental plan, fisheries regulation, marine protected animals. For the environmentally sound and sustainable development (ESSD), MSP should have to be prepared based in a way of top-down including coastal and EEZ plan, relevance of ocean-use zoning and sector planning, 3-D spatial information. And also integrated information system have to be prepared through high-tech marine spatial information. In conclusion, consistent and relevant strategy for MSP should have to include the whole information related to the maritime affairs such as harbor, fishing port, fishing ground, coastal management, marine ecosystem generally.

• Clean Technology
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2021

Due to the negative impacts of microplastics (MPs) on the ecosystem, the investigation of its occurrence and its treatment from sewage and wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have received a lot of attention in the recent years. Most MPs are precipitated and removed with the sludge during the treatment process. Proper sludge management is immensely necessary to avoid MP exposure in the environment. However, the domestic research on this aspect is limited. This study reviews appropriate sludge management approaches to decrease environmental MP exposure. This can be achieved through investigating sludge generation and treatment, regulation laws and government policy trends with an emphasis on WWTPs. The ratio of sludge in sewage treatment plants has been observed to be highest in recycling followed by incineration and landfills. Recycling is the highest in fuel followed by construction materials and composting. For WWTPs, the highest ratio is in recycling followed by fuel and landfills, and recycling is confirmed in the following order: incineration > after composting > after solidification > earthworm breeding. Treatment approaches that can increase the exposure of MPs to the ecosystem are considered to be used in landfills and agricultural fields. However, this method is not appropriate given the insufficient capacity of domestic landfills and the sufficient supply of existing chemical and animal manure fertilizers. Instead, it would be rational in terms of environmental preservation to expand the use of fuel and energy in connection with the new and renewable energy policy, and to actively seek the use of sub-materials for construction materials. In order to secure the basic data for the effectiveness of future planning and revision of related laws, it is required to perform an in-depth investigation of the sludge supply and demand status along with the environmental and economic effects.