CF100 vs RE100, a mere political show

By Jang Daul

Wind became the most important single source of electricity generation in the U.K. for the first time in the first quarter of this year. In other words, electricity generated by wind (32.4 percent) surpassed gas (31.7 percent). Renewables in total, including solar, biomass and hydro, provided 42 percent of the UK's electricity while 33 percent came from fossil fuels, mainly gas.

This is a very symbolic moment because the U.K. started the industrial revolution with coal. However, due to its drop in usage and its replacement by renewables and gas, coal only contributed 1.5 percent last year.

While the pioneer country of fossil fuel is positioned as a global renewable leader, Korea is still at the back of the race. The share of renewables in Korea's power generation in January 2023 was 7.2 percent according to the International Energy Agency. No country among the 38 OECD members has a lower renewable share than Korea.

The renewable naysayers always repeat that we have such small land and spread rumors that we have weak sunlight. Is Korea's low renewable performance due to the given natural conditions? No, it is not.

One might be surprised to know that in fact, Korea ranked fourth in solar power generation among OECD nations after the US, Japan and Australia in January 2023. Korea produced more than twice the electricity (1993 gigawatt-hours) from solar than the U.K. (807 gigawatt-hours).

The share of solar energy in Korean power generation was only 3.7 percent. However, people tend not to realize that Korea has a large denominator, its total electricity generation, in the calculation. Korea is the 4th largest net electricity producer in the world. In January 2023, Korea produced 54 terawatt-hours, more than that of France and Germany and almost double that of the U.K.

Therefore, even with the small solar share, Korea still produced quite a large amount of electricity from solar power. This shows that Korea does have great potential for solar energy which is not surprising at all considering its latitude.

Korea also has great potential for offshore wind power. What Korea lacks is not natural conditions but the political will of decision-makers, ambitious national strategy and governmental and private investment in the domestic renewable energy market.

However, the Yoon administration lowered the goal for the share of renewables in total power production from 30.2 percent to 21.6 percent by 2030. Also, the new administration lowered the quota in the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) scheme. These policy changes discourage the growth of renewables.

In addition to going backward against the global trend, what worries me more recently is that the Yoon administration is discrediting the global 100 percent renewable (RE100) initiative and promoting CF100 with a focus on nuclear power.

First of all, the word, 'CF100' is mainly used in Korea. It actually refers to the movement for 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy. It should be understood as a supplementary movement to the global RE100 initiative whose members are already composed of more than 400 global corporations.

Regardless of the low possibility of Yoon's attempt together with the nuclear industry to replace the globally well-established RE100 movement with their CF100, what is important is to decarbonize the power sector to tackle the deteriorating global climate crisis.

However, the Yoon administration promotes nuclear power at the expense of renewables. Therefore, the CF100 promoted by Yoon is nothing but a mere political show.

While most of the nearly 200 countries in the world are able to use renewables, only 31 countries are operating nuclear power. Also, there are only six countries currently building more than two new reactors. These numbers tell us that nuclear power is not a universal, favored and fast enough solution to address the global climate issue.

Lastly, if Korea wants to maintain the current 30 percent nuclear share and achieve full decarbonization in the power sector, most of the rest will likely be renewables. Whether the Yoon administration favors nuclear or not, whether the CF100 could favor some Korean companies to reduce their burden to increase the use of renewable electricity or not, we need to increase renewable electricity as much and as fast as possible.

In this context, the Yoon administration is clearly failing now to support an ambitious and effective increase of renewable power and wasting time on a meaningless political show of CF100 vs RE100.

In addition, the Yoon administration never tells the inconvenient truth that if nuclear continues its 30 percent share by 2050, in addition to dangerously extending the lifetime of old reactors twice for 10 years and building Shin Hanul 3 and 4 reactors, there would need to be at least an additional 24 new nuclear reactors in Korea ― a nation whose nuclear density is already the highest in the world.

Jang Daul (daul.jang@greenpeace.org) is a government relations and advocacy specialist at Greenpeace East Asia Seoul Office.