A study on the foundation for expanding development of new and renewable energy

Abstract

Challenges in the energy sector facing humanity are largely divided into stable energy supply and demand, reduce of climate change and environmental impact, energy poverty. Human beings must overcome such energy problems and make sustainable development. To this end, improvement of energy efficiency and expansion of low-carbon energy are considered as the key elements of the policy. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has argued that improving energy efficiency and expanding low-carbon energy technologies are key solutions for greenhouse gas reductions. In particular, the role of new and renewable energy has been emphasized in the decarbonization strategy of the electric power sector. As such, interest in new and renewable energy is rising worldwide (In this paper, I will name new and renewable energy as renewable energy). Renewable energy, one of the new growth industries, is gaining popularity as an environmental friendly future energy replacing fossil fuels with little greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, the size of new and renewable energy market is gradually increasing. In other words, major developed countries around the world are putting a lot of efforts and financial resources to preoccupy the rapidly growing renewable energy market. In addition to developed countries, developing countries such as China, India and Brazil are actively participating in the development of new and renewable energy technologies. In particular, it can be said that the new climate system, which came into effect in the Paris Agreement in 2015, provided all necessary and sufficient conditions for energy conversion. As a result, the Korean government, which put off the burden of the climate change convention and ignored the voice of energy conversion, had to concentrate on the conversion to renewable energy. Therefore, Korea is also putting a lot of resources into the renewable energy field to preoccupy the world market under the vision of low carbon green growth. In the future, this competitive environment is expected to become more intense. In particular, the strengthening of the policy on renewable energy sector in Korea is expected to minimize the impact of international oil price fluctuations and reduce dependency on high energy imports. Also, renewable energy is expected to become more popular as an energy source to replace nuclear power. The cost of generating renewable energy is still higher than that of existing energy sources. Therefore, technological innovation that can lower the power generation cost is very important. Government support policies can also be an important factor for industrial growth. In particular, in the power industry, in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants, it is essential to improve the efficiency of power plants, develop new energy storage technologies, and spread renewable energy. Technological innovation is an important factor in expanding the development of renewable energy. However, prior to this, it is more important to improve the government's support policy and resident acceptability, and to improve various systems and regulations. In this study, I analyze the present state of renewable energy development and obstacles that suppress it, and discuss the improvement plan.