Title of Dissertation: national renewable energy policy

Figure 38. 
The prices of Renewable Energy Certificates, 2012-2016. 
Source: Korea Power Exchange, 
http://rec.kpx.info/index.jsp
 
Under this unexpected increase of solar PV installation, the government revised 
the targets for solar PV in 2013. The target for solar PV for 2014-2015 has increased to 
1.5GW from 1.2GW.
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Since the oversupply of the solar RECs has continued after this 
measure, the government repealed additional targets for solar PV in 2016. Since then, 
solar PV has competed with other renewable energy sources without any limitation. 
The government also attempted to support the owners of small-scale solar PV 
projects, who had struggled with selling the RECs to power utilities under severe 
competition. The government has expanded the size of government-led auction for RECs 
from 100MW to 150MW per year, and 30 percent of the quantity of RECs were assigned 
to small-scale solar PV projects in 2013. In the first half of 2016, the government-led 
auction has increased to 210MW, and a 60 percent of the quantity of RECs were assigned 
to the projects less than 100KW. A government official who was in charge of solar 
212
Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy, “Making a stepping stone for taking off new 
and renewable energy,” 
Press Release
, October 27, 2013. 
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50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
Feb. 2012
Jan. 2013
Jan. 2014
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Jan. 2016
KR
W

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policies said that their focus was on the small-scale solar PV producers: “Currently, we 
focus on solar PV producers, especially small-scale producers for policymaking. They are 
having the most difficult time. We want to increase the competitiveness of the weakest 
players”.
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In 2014, the Fourth Basic Plan for New and Renewable Energy was released. The 
target for renewable energy has weakened from 11 percent by 2030 to 11 percent by 
2035. The government planned to shift to “public-private partnership” from 
“government-driven” renewable energy market.
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The investments from private sector 
were expected to be encouraged by designing market-friendly policies, establishing 
business models, and deregulation. The details of the RPS have been changed to allow 
more flexibility in the market. The plan also included the measures to promote domestic 
corporations to expand to overseas markets: the expansion of financial supports, 
provision of information and human resources, and international relations to find business 
opportunities for renewable energy corporations. The government planned to develop 
renewable energy projects through cooperating with the government of other countries 
and international organizations.
In sum, solar PV policies have expanded from supporting technology 
development to supporting industry in South Korea (Table 19). In the 1990s, the policies 
focused on R&D supports, and then in the 2000s, a number of policies to promote 
deployment were adopted. Since the announcement of the national vision Low Carbon 
Green Growth in 2008, many policies to promote renewable energy industry as a new 
213
Interview #27 
214
Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Energy, The Fourth Basic Plan for New and 
Renewable Energy, September 2014.

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growth engine have been adopted. Government supports for domestic industry has 
expanded to the supports for exports in recent years. As a result, promoting industry has 
become a policy goal as important as the original goal of renewable energy policy, which 
is to increase the share of renewable energy in national energy mix.

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