[단독] Half the solar power price… Distribution of private businesses

[이뉴스투데이 고선호 기자] As the economic feasibility of fuel cells that generate electricity using hydrogen energy, etc., has become prominent, it is found that the price of solar energy has plunged to about half.

Accordingly, it is pointed out that the excessive diffusion policy is causing side effects as the damage of private businesses who have entered the power generation business according to the government-led solar power policy is spreading.

According to the’New & Renewable One-Stop Business Information Integration Portal’ operated by the Korea Electric Power Exchange, Korea Electric Power Corporation, and Korea Energy Corporation on the 14th, the amount of solar energy power transactions plummeted from 506.28GWh in March last year to 331.78 in December.

During the same period, the amount of solar energy transactions was cut in half, from 4,225 billion won to 22.569 billion won.

The power generation industry is the main cause of the decline in solar power, and the fuel cell sector has recently cited the strength as a key industry for power generation technology using renewable energy.

In fact, during the same period, the fuel cell transaction volume was steadily increasing from 237.60GWh to 352.77GWh.

The amount of the fuel cell power transaction has also increased from 19.68 billion won in March to 23,522 billion won in December. Accordingly, some have even interpreted that the existing transaction volume has moved from solar power to fuel cells.

Seung-Hoon Yoo, a professor at Seoul National University of Science and Technology, said, “It seems to be a decline due to the excess supply of solar energy and the strengthening of the marketability of fuel cells.” It will be difficult to recover.”

The weak solar power generation is increasing the burden on private power generation companies suffering from worsening REC transaction prices.

REC is a kind of subsidy supported by the government to solar power generation companies, and depending on the scale of power generation, the companies that receive REC issuance sell them to power generation companies to earn additional profits.

According to the current government guidelines, power generation companies cover about 7% of their total electricity as of this year through REC purchases.

However, since the Moon Jae-in administration was inaugurated, the number of private solar power generation companies has rapidly increased due to the expansion of renewable energy policies, resulting in an imbalance in demand, resulting in a continued decline in transaction prices.

The REC transaction price fell from 104.68 won per kW in 2017 to 29 won in December, down to about one-fifth in three years.

In addition, the government’s reorganization of electricity rates last month led to sunset even in the special discount system for industrial renewable energy electricity rates, and private businesses are having a worst time.

Kang Mo (53), a private power plant operator, said, “As the prices of RECs continue to drop and the volume of transactions is dropping, the people in the industry are shed bloody tears.” “The government that promoted it as if it would support everything if solar power generation was Turning to fuel cells, they are indifferent to system improvement. I don’t know how long I will be able to withstand the minus.”

On the other hand, experts pointed to the oversupply caused by the government’s excessive proliferation policy as the main reason for the deterioration of the solar energy market.

According to the government’s expansion of renewable energy policy, the increase in the size of private businesses entering the business has had an impact on the situation.

According to the Korea Energy Management Corporation, the number of domestic solar power generation companies has increased more than three times over the past three years from 21200 companies in 2017 to 60,000 companies as of December last year.

In this regard, Professor Seung-Hoon Yoo said, “The side effects of the government’s excessive solar power diffusion policy are becoming a reality. At the present time, support measures such as subsidies and system improvement should be prioritized, but as the policy itself is focused only on scale expansion, it is difficult to cope with side effects. Countermeasures must come out.”

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