"Carbon Neutral Scenario, A Treasure Trove of Investment Ideas"

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] As natural disasters caused by global warming become more frequent, governments around the world are strengthening various regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In South Korea, the Presidential Committee on Carbon Neutrality 2050 recently announced the 'Scenario for Achieving Carbon Neutrality by 2050'. The Yeouido securities market expects to gain various investment ideas through the carbon neutrality scenario.

SK Securities recently released a report stating that the most important part of the carbon neutrality scenario is the transition (power generation) sector, predicting a significant increase in the proportion of electricity in final energy consumption.

Researchers Ki-Hyun Park and Hyo-Seok Lee of SK Securities explained, "As electrification progresses across sectors such as industry, transportation, and buildings, total electricity demand is expected to increase dramatically to 204.2~212.9% compared to 2018," adding, "the phase-out of coal-fired power generation has effectively been decided."

Researcher Park emphasized, "The share of renewable energy is expected to expand more than tenfold from the current level," and "hydrogen and hydrogen ammonia power generation will be newly introduced under the name of zero-carbon new power sources."

He continued, "In the scenario, the government presented the share of hydrogen power generation as 1.4~9.7% for fuel cells and 13.2~21.4% for zero-carbon new power sources," and introduced that "hydrogen fuel cell power generation is already commercially operated domestically."

He said, "Zero-carbon new power sources mean attempts to generate power using hydrogen gas turbines and hydrogen ammonia, similar to Japan," adding, "While Korea has traditionally focused hydrogen use on transportation and industrial applications, Japan has actively pursued hydrogen power generation since the Great East Japan Earthquake."

Researcher Lee said, "Expectations for the hydrogen economy have grown even larger," and explained, "According to the scenario, the government plans to actively utilize hydrogen in the power generation sector in the future." He added, "Power generation using hydrogen and hydrogen ammonia is expected to reach 159.6~270.0 TWh by 2050," emphasizing that "this accounts for 13.2~21.4% of total power generation."

He analyzed, "Power generation using fuel cells (hydrogen) will also account for a significant portion, 1.4~9.7%," noting that "considering that natural gas currently accounts for about 22% of power generation, this is an enormous figure."

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