The Presidential Committee on Policy Planning, which is drawing a five-year blueprint for the government operations of Lee Jae-myung's administration, included a plan to achieve economic growth and carbon neutrality simultaneously through the "Energy Expressway" in its national agenda. The plan is to first construct the section along the west coast in the 2030s and then expand it across the Korean Peninsula in the 2040s to complete a large-scale transmission infrastructure.
The "Energy Expressway" is a policy to establish a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) network that transmits electricity produced in the core cluster of renewable energy in the Honam area nationwide, and it is a key promise of President Lee Jae-myung. The government aims to create new growth engines by linking this with innovations in the electricity market based on artificial intelligence (AI) and fostering climate tech industries such as energy storage systems (ESS).
According to the political circle on the 13th, the Presidential Committee on Policy Planning reflected the task of achieving economic growth and carbon neutrality together through the "Energy Expressway" in the field of "Innovative Economy Leading the World" among the five national goals.
The Presidential Committee on Policy Planning proposed the goal of first constructing an energy expressway centered on the west coast in the 2030s and then expanding it to the south and east coasts to lay a U-shaped energy expressway across the entire country in the 2040s. It plans to expand the current transmission line length of 37,169 circuit kilometers (c-km) to 48,592 c-km by 2030, more than a 30% increase, and to increase the capacity of renewable energy facilities from 35.1 gigawatts (GW) to over 78 GW.
The background for the government's large-scale investment in transmission infrastructure is the issue of insufficient transmission networks, which has been pointed out as a bottleneck for the expansion of renewable energy.
The 11th Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand (Electricity Basic Plan), established earlier this year, aims to increase the capacity of renewable energy generation facilities from 30 GW in 2023 to 121.9 GW by 2038. However, achieving this goal is challenging at the current deployment rate. In particular, although renewable energy generation facilities are concentrated in the Honam region, there is a need for a means to deliver the produced electricity to major consumption areas such as metropolitan regions.
The Presidential Committee on Policy Planning also plans to innovate the AI-based electricity market and system operations in the process of promoting the "Energy Expressway" policy. It has also presented a vision to export climate tech industries such as energy storage systems (ESS).
Additionally, the Presidential Committee on Policy Planning announced plans to establish offshore wind farms and dedicated ports to expand renewable energy and significantly increase the locations for agricultural, floating, and industrial solar power installations. It also plans to early establish RE100 industrial complexes in regions like South Jeolla and southeastern Gyeonggi to respond to the RE100 (100% Renewable Energy) demands from global corporations.
A system to promote coexistence between energy production and local residents will also be pursued concurrently. The "Sunshine and Wind Pension," which shares profits from solar and wind power generation with residents, will be expanded, and energy self-sufficient villages will be established to ensure stable electricity supply and promote local economic revitalization in rural areas.
Economic structural reform to achieve carbon neutrality is also a key task. It plans to comprehensively revise carbon neutrality strategies and measures in the industrial sector and operate a one-stop service to assist corporations in calculating and reducing carbon emissions in response to strengthened overseas carbon regulations.
The reduction of greenhouse gases in the building sector will also be pursued alongside the expansion of zero-energy buildings and green remodeling. Through this, the goal is to simultaneously achieve energy transition, enhance competitiveness in advanced industries, and promote balanced regional development.
Song Kyung-hee, head of the Economic Division of the Presidential Committee on Policy Planning and director of the Artificial Intelligence Reliability Center at Sungkyunkwan University, said, "In the 1970s, when everyone faced difficulties, Korea achieved an industrialization miracle with the construction of the Gyeongbu Expressway. Now, we want to open a new future for Korea with two growth expressways: AI and energy."
Earlier, the Presidential Committee on Policy Planning explained in its new government's growth policy commentary that "just as the opening of the Gyeongbu Expressway changed the flow of people and goods and the economic structure, the Energy Expressway is an important infrastructure that will change the national industrial map, energy flow, and the fate of local economies."