Energy Faces Triple Challenges of Security, Environment, and Price... Paradigm Shift Through Rapid Technology Commercialization

"We will lay the foundation for creating major achievements through the convergence of technology, people, and markets."

On the 23rd, Lee Chang-geun, President of the Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER), presented the direction for the Energy Institute as "KIER leading K-Energy" at a press conference held in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, and announced innovative plans such as ‘Establishing a Super-Convergent R&D System’ and ‘Creating a Super-Gap Research Environment.’

‘Creating national new growth engines through K-Energy’ is a vision to shift the paradigm of performance diffusion from a technology-centered mindset to a market-centered perspective, overcoming the time gap between the technologies possessed by the institute and those demanded by the market, thereby generating outcomes and expanding into overseas markets.

President Lee stated, "Going forward, KIER plans to establish a commercialization-linked technology development system with marketability from the project planning stage and to concretize energy technologies by sector to create new markets. We will also improve the evaluation and reward system to focus on collaborative value rather than individual achievements, encouraging the creation of large-scale collaborative outcomes."

Recently, the energy market has been experiencing a ‘triple hardship’ in terms of security, environment, and price. In response, he presented three management goals: ▲ Establishing a super-convergent R&D support system ▲ Creating a super-gap research environment ▲ Building an organizational culture that enhances PRIDE (Pride) and regional coexistence.

First, to enable companies to immediately adopt and commercialize technologies needed in the market, a ‘Market-Ready Introduction Project’ will be implemented. President Lee said, "There are frequent cases where early-stage technologies that are not yet ready for market application are transferred to companies at low cost and then become obsolete. We will incubate these technologies to enable scale-up after transfer to companies and increase commercialization outcomes."

To this end, internal project proposals are currently being solicited. An evaluation panel composed of external company CTO-level personnel will conduct the review. Additionally, cooperation with startup accelerators and venture capital (VC) firms will support companies.

President Lee recently improved the evaluation system to encourage collaboration among internal researchers. By introducing ‘contribution to others’ success’ into personnel evaluations, the plan is to promote performance creation based on cooperation and strengthen rewards for large-scale collaborative achievements.

Alongside this, efforts will be made to create a super-gap research environment in national strategic technology fields such as hydrogen and secondary batteries. The institute will actively attract convergent research groups and significantly expand challenging and creative projects to lay the foundation for super-gap technologies. Furthermore, through the operation of a research concentration enhancement committee and system improvements, a research-focused environment will be established.

President Lee said, "We will focus on research in core energy technologies such as hydrogen supply and utilization technologies for leading the hydrogen economy society, renewable energy innovation for carbon neutrality, smart energy technologies for distributed energy supply and demand management, carbon capture and utilization (CCU), and next-generation solar cells."

President Lee also shared the energy sector achievements made during President Yoon Seok-yeol’s visit to Saudi Arabia. KIER is currently strengthening cooperation by signing an MOU to establish a Clean Energy Joint Research Center for the NEOM City project with Saudi Arabia. He said, “Saudi Arabia views clean energy as the next-generation growth engine for future generations after oil depletion. Saudi Arabia has shown great interest in KIER’s hydrogen and next-generation solar cell technologies, and we plan to develop world-class next-generation solar cells with an efficiency of about 35% and apply them in NEOM City.”

President Lee concluded, "It is the institute’s duty to solve the triple hardship of energy through technological innovation and open a sustainable future. Going forward, the Korea Institute of Energy Research will create major achievements that all citizens can take pride in, expand into overseas markets, and lead not only in solving the triple hardship of energy but also in creating future national new growth engines."

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