Construction of 'Solar Power Plant' at Gyeonggi-do Northern Government Complex... First Result of Resident Participation Model

Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Dong-yeon is taking a commemorative photo on the 14th after attending the solar power plant construction project at the northern government office building in Uijeongbu City.

Gyeonggi Province has completed a 360kW-scale solar power generation facility on the rooftop and parking lot idle land of the northern government office building in Uijeongbu City. This facility, installed in cooperation with the Provincial Citizens' Cooperative, is the first solar power plant built since Gyeonggi Province's public institutions declared RE100 in February last year.

On the 14th, Gyeonggi Province Governor Kim Dong-yeon visited the solar power plant installed at the northern government office to inspect its operation status.

Governor Kim Dong-yeon said, "It is meaningful to install the first solar power plant at the northern government office after the Gyeonggi RE100 declaration. It is especially significant because citizens voluntarily participated." He added, "We promised that by 2026, all electricity used by Gyeonggi Province public institutions will be produced from renewable energy, and I am truly pleased that we have become the first metropolitan local government to practice RE100 in the public sector."

He continued, "Gyeonggi Province will take the lead in protecting the renewable energy industry and actively responding to climate change."

The northern government office announced in June last year that to realize the ‘Gyeonggi RE100’ vision, it would expand the solar power generation facility within the office from the current 84.4kW to 886.5kW by 2024. The newly built solar power plant is the first achievement following the announcement of the facility expansion plan.

Gyeonggi Province installed a 360kW-scale solar power generation facility on the rooftops of the main and annex buildings of the northern government office, the rooftop of the Health and Environment Research Building, and the official vehicle parking lot, conducting the project as a citizen participation-type business to build public consensus on the Gyeonggi RE100 policy.

Through a public contest, three cooperatives?Gyeonggi Energy Cooperative, Uijeongbu Natural Energy Cooperative, and Dongducheon Natural Energy Cooperative?were selected to jointly promote the construction of the power plant. These cooperatives are social economy organizations with about 500 local residents from Uijeongbu and Dongducheon participating, and they also engage in social contribution activities such as supporting energy-vulnerable groups with part of the power plant’s profits.

This project is a business model where Gyeonggi Province discovers idle land and leases it to cooperatives, and the cooperatives invest funds contributed by citizens into renewable energy production projects, sharing development profits with the citizens. The cooperatives invested a total of 690 million KRW and expect to share approximately 110 million KRW in annual profits with members for at least 20 years.

Gyeonggi Province explained that the citizen participation-type power plant construction project at the northern government office has a fourfold significance.

First, it is a business model without financial input, meaning not a single won of citizens’ taxes was spent. It also utilizes idle shared land to lease it cheaply to citizens and share stable solar power generation profits.

Additionally, the electricity produced at the power plant supports companies urgently implementing global RE100, and by using the land lease income in Gyeonggi Province, it supports energy-disadvantaged groups and reinvests in the spread of renewable energy.

Gyeonggi Province plans to conduct a full survey of shared land in cooperation with cities and counties in the first half of this year to discover sites suitable for solar power generation facilities and expand the distribution of renewable energy by utilizing them.

For future projects, Gyeonggi Province plans to develop an open platform that allows any citizen to easily participate online, presenting it as a representative diffusion model for practicing carbon-neutral living. The generation profits will be provided to participating citizens, creating social value through public-private win-win cooperation.

Earlier, Governor Kim Dong-yeon declared in his February last year speech to the Gyeonggi Provincial Council that he would achieve RE100 for Gyeonggi Province public institutions during his term.

Gyeonggi RE100 is being promoted in four sectors: public, corporate, citizen, and industry. In the corporate sector, the first ‘Gyeonggi RE100’ industrial complex, which mandates the installation of renewable energy generation facilities on industrial complex roofs and idle land to produce electricity, will be established in Hwaseong City. In the citizen sector, projects such as the ‘100,000 Household Power Self-Reliance Project’ and the ‘Energy Opportunity Income Village Creation’ are being promoted.

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