Title of Dissertation: national renewable energy policy

 
Other than these efforts,
 
Korean solar PV corporations have suggested policy 
change to the government. The research participant corporations said that they have made 
suggestions through the meetings with government officials or the industry associations 
such as KOPIA, Korea New and Renewable Energy Association (KNREA), and 
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Independent Power Producer Association. The corporations agreed that most of their 
suggestions have not been accepted by the government. Since solar policy is part of the 
energy policy, it was hard to make changes of solar policy. A cell manufacturer said: 
“Renewable energy is one of the energy sectors. Doesn’t it hard to change the top-level 
energy policy [to change solar policy]? The more the policy is up-level, it is harder to 
touch.”
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Solar policies in South Korea have established related to upper level government 
plans such as the National Energy Plan, the Basic Plan for Technology Development, 
Application, and Deployment of New and Renewable Energy, and the Basic Power 
Supply Plan. Moreover, renewable energy policies include multiple sources of new and 
renewable energy; therefore, it is not easy to change the details of the policy only for 
solar PV. Many research participants pointed out that the fundamental way to promote 
solar PV is to change the direction of energy policy. An installer said: “The government’s 
nuclear power-friendly policies should be changed. Of course the RPS or the FIT are 
important, but more importantly, the unrealistic pricing of electricity, and the policies 
designed to win favors from [energy-intensive] companies should be changed”.
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Korean solar PV corporations have attempted to adapt to the changing market 
conditions through technology development and cost reduction, but these strategies were 
limited in strengthening their competitiveness in the global market. They also looked for 
more opportunities in abroad and in other solar PV value chains, but only a few 
corporations with strong financial status and resources could be successful in expanding 
their business. Under these difficulties, they have suggested government policies for 
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more favorable market conditions, but the policies were not easy to be changed since the 
solar policies were closely related to upper-level energy policies. 
Interactions between policies and industry 
Since solar PV is one of the minor energy sources, solar policies have evolved 
within the boundary of energy policy in South Korea. The policies for renewable energy 
have established based on the existing energy policies, which have designed for fossil 
energy. A former government official pointed out that renewable energy sources are 
dependent on the existing energy system: “The scale of one nuclear power plant is 1GW. 
We need three or four thousands solar PV power plants for getting 1GW. Which would 
be easier to manage, one plant or three or four thousand power plants? Renewable energy 
sources cannot move independently. In other words, it is a dependent variable”.
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The 
existing energy system has been significantly influenced by the national energy policies. 
An expert stated that the influence of the government to the energy system is enormous: 
“In South Korea, the government decides how many coal power plants and gas power 
plants by setting the supply plans. The government decides how much subsidies for solar 
PV will be spent. It also decides to stop the subsidies and to introduce the RPS in 
replacement of the FIT. In South Korea, a 90 percent [of energy system] is the 
government”.
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Under these circumstances, the effects of the industry into the energy policy were 
limited in South Korea. Even for the policies for renewable energy sources, the solar PV 
industry was one of many interest groups. For instance, the stakeholders of the RPS 
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include power producers, solar PV industry, wind industry, and the industries of other 
renewable energy sources. When the RPS has launched in 2012, power producers 
claimed that the target, 11 percent of energy supply by renewable energy sources by 
2030, was too challenging. This target has revised to 11 percent by 2035 in 2014. A 
government official said that they made the policy “flexible” considering the requests 
from power producers.
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The solar PV industry has also engaged in the policymaking 
process of the RPS. Around 2010, the KOPIA suggested to the government creating more 
than 500MW market in a year by policies.
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After discussions, the government 
confirmed creating 1.2GW market in four years through setting an annual additional 
target for solar PV. This shows that multiple interest groups have influenced the 
policymaking process, and solar PV industry is one of them.
Although the solar PV industry has hardly affect the top-level energy policies, it 
has affected some lower-level policies or the details of policies. Other than the additional 
targets of solar PV, the government has created the policies to support solar PV industry. 
As mentioned above, diverse policies have introduced to support domestic industry and 
the industry’s exports of their products. Some policies have set details considering 
domestic corporations. For instance, the Solar Lease Program requires participant 
organizations to form a consortium including a domestic manufacturer. The requests from 
the solar PV manufacturing that domestic manufacturing needs to have priorities in the 
RPS or any deployment program seem to be considered in designing this policy.
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After the globalization of solar PV market, national deployment policies for 
renewable energy did not guarantee the rise of solar PV industry. Under the RPS, power 
producers are the players that directly affecting the solar PV market. Solar PV industry 
will be benefitted only if the power producers use domestically-produced products and 
services. Power producers have no reason to use domestically-produced products or 
services if they are more expensive. An expert pointed out the interest of power 
producers: “Power producers pursue their own benefits under the deployment policy. 
They can use both foreign products and domestic products. They are just playing in the 
market”.
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Under these circumstances, the government has ended up establishing different 
types of policies to support the solar PV industry. The government has supported the 
exports of solar PV corporations by providing resources and capabilities. These policies 
did not serve the goal of the existing renewable energy deployment policies, which was 
to increase the share of renewables in national energy mix. The goal of these policies was 
to promote domestic solar PV industry, and to boost the exports of the industry. With the 
globalization of the solar PV market, Korean solar PV policies were evolved into two 
different groups in terms of policy goal. There have been some policies to increase solar 
PV installations, and the others have established to boost domestic solar PV industry.
Summary 
Renewable energy policies have expanded in South Korea since the government 
started promoting renewable energy sources in 1980s. In early days, the policies have 
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focused on increasing the share of renewable energy in the national energy mix through 
technology development and deployment programs. Over time, diverse policies have 
been adopted to support domestic renewable energy industry, which was the goal that 
could not be served by traditional deployment policies.
Globalization of the solar PV market has affected this expansion of the policies in 
South Korea. R&D supports, which have much increased since 2008, were not very 
effective because other countries have developed advanced technologies earlier than 
Korean corporations. Deployment programs such as the FIT and the RPS did not directly 
benefit domestic solar manufacturing because solar projects owners could use imported 
solar products, which became much cheaper since China’s investments in solar PV.
Under these circumstances, the government ended up introducing different types 
of policies to support solar PV industry. Since the announcement of the Low Carbon 
Green Growth in 2008, the government has implemented diverse policies including 
certification programs, building test beds for renewable energy projects, and the supports 
for export corporations. As a result, the solar PV policies has expanded and diversified in 
South Korea.
These findings show that the rise of industry has influenced the expansion of 
national policies on renewables. The relation between the industry and the policies was 
not a one-way influence. Rather, the policies and the industry have changed through 
interaction. Once the government established a new policy, the industry reacted to the 
changes by the policy directly and indirectly in the changing contexts of the global 
market. Based on these reactions, the government revised the policy or introduced a new 

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policy to address the issues raised by the industry. These continuing interactions have 
resulted in the expanded and diversified solar PV policies in South Korea.