The Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City is expanding its creation of "solar income villages," which use profits from solar power generation to improve resident welfare and boost incomes in rural areas facing the risk of disappearance. The plan aims to establish 500 such villages by 2030 to achieve energy welfare and increase resident incomes.
According to the integrated special city on the 4th, a solar income village is a resident-led community solar project in which 10 or more village residents form a cooperative to install and operate solar power facilities ranging from 300 kilowatts to 1 megawatt on idle land, sharing the generation revenue among residents.
The government is pursuing the creation of more than 700 villages nationwide this year and over 3,000 by 2030, aiming to revitalize local economies, restore communities, and expand renewable energy.
In line with this, the integrated special city has set a target of 100 villages this year and 500 in total by 2030. To this end, it conducted a first demand survey of 22 cities and counties late last year, identifying 150 candidate villages, and is taking proactive measures such as conducting additional demand surveys. It has also proposed a revision of the Electricity Business Act to the government to facilitate grid connection for village solar power generation, and is working to resolve grid issues through the use of energy storage systems (ESS).
To address issues such as siting, grid connection, and permits that arise during project implementation, it has also established a support system involving cities and counties as well as related organizations including Korea Electric Power Corp., Korea Energy Agency, and Korea Rural Community Corp.
In particular, it is pursuing customized consulting for each village together with the Green Energy Institute. The goal is to proactively identify villages suitable for the project, support the establishment of cooperatives, upgrade revenue models, and provide education to improve resident acceptance, thereby raising the selection rate in public competitions and creating a structure in which renewable energy profits circulate within the region.
Backed by such proactive measures, the integrated special city recently achieved the distinction of having 19 villages selected—the most of any region—out of 86 nationwide in the government's first round of this year's solar income village competition.
The integrated special city plans to continue administrative support so that more villages can be selected in the second round. A total of 169 villages applied for the second round, which closed late last month, with results to be announced on September 30.
Yoo Hyun-ho, director of the Industry Bureau at the Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City, said, "Solar income villages are a new model of regional development in which residents directly produce renewable energy and share the profits with the local community. We will strengthen on-site support so that the villages selected in the first round can carry out their projects without disruption, and we will actively support ensuring that the voices from the field during implementation are reflected in policy."
