SY, Korea's First Company to Independently Operate All Business Models of Factory Roof Solar Power Generation

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Hyun-seok] Comprehensive building materials company SY announced on the 11th that it has signed a rooftop lease solar power generation contract with SK E&S and Cowon Energy Service.

In this model, SK E&S leases the roof of SY's factory to generate solar power, while SY, a rooftop solar power specialist company, simultaneously leases the roof and directly handles the design, construction, and maintenance of the solar power plant. The facility is scheduled to be completed in September, with a capacity of 1MW, and is expected to produce about 1.3GWh of electricity annually. This amount is enough to supply approximately 340 ordinary households.

Rooftop solar power generation projects are divided into self-consumption models and power sales models. Recently, the policy has favored higher power generation costs compared to forest-damaging solar power projects on forest land. Additionally, rooftop solar projects on factory roofs, which have easier permits and approvals, are gaining attention, leading to an increase in rooftop lease power generation projects by large power producers. The structure is such that power producers earn generation revenue, and lessors earn lease income by utilizing idle rooftop space.

At SY's Inju production complex, solar power generation facilities for both self-consumption and power sales are already operating on the roofs of three out of five factory buildings. As rooftop lease solar power generation proceeds on the remaining two factory buildings, SY has become the only company in Korea operating all rooftop solar power business models within a single complex. It is an eco-friendly production complex producing 4.5GWh of power with about 9,000 solar modules on a total rooftop area of 10,000 pyeong.

SY plans to expand proposals for related new product development and rooftop solar power plant construction projects based on its own solar power generation business operation data.

An SY representative stated, "Along with our patented solar power generation roofing material ‘New Solar Roof,’ we continuously develop and apply specialized products such as the ‘Ceramic Hyperbill Roofing Material,’ which is specialized for bifacial modules that generate power even from reflected light. For sites near the coast, we additionally apply solar power structures that withstand wind speeds of 50m/s, and our site-customized construction has resulted in no safety accidents at dozens of sites since entering the solar power EPC business in 2017, which is a point of pride."

Meanwhile, with the government’s ‘2050 Carbon Neutral Roadmap’ and Green New Deal policies, along with the spread of companies’ ‘RE100 Campaign (commitment to 100% renewable energy use for power consumption),’ the expansion of factory rooftop solar projects is expected to accelerate. According to the Korea Industrial Complex Corporation, the potential power generation capacity of factory roofs in about 1,000 industrial complexes nationwide is estimated at 5GW. The industry expects a construction market worth approximately 7 trillion KRW to open.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.