Korea seeks to build energy self-sufficient city

Korea plans to construct a "pilot energy self-sufficient city" that supplies the necessary volume of energy within the city in order to ease abnormal weather conditions including climate change and extreme heat wave.

“We are reviewing a plan on a ‘pilot urban power generation project’ in which small quantities of energy are generated at various locations in a city by using renewable energy sources, and all of the energy is supplied and consumed within the city,” the Science and ICT Ministry said on Sunday.

The ministry plans to select and provide support to five technology areas that will help slow climate change in order to address such problems. They include solar cells to conveniently generate energy, safe energy storage technology, hydrogen fuel cell, "energy harvesting" that collects small volumes of wasted energy such as vibration of building and pressure, and renewable energy hybrid technology that interconnects different forms of energy such as electricity and heat.

The ministry plans to construct the pilot city that adopts these technologies by 2025.


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