[Feature] Seoul neighborhoods become green energy leader

The Sipjaseong Village, a neighborhood of 46 households, in southeastern Seoul may look like many other neighborhoods in the area, but it is different in an important way.

Since 2012, the villagers have come together to meet their own energy needs -- they installed solar panels on building rooftops, installed sealings for windows and doors to help houses retain heat and replaced light bulbs with light-emitting diode lights to reduce electricity consumption.

With their effort over the past years, the village produced 46 percent of the total electricity it used from renewable energy in 2016, producing 127,750 kilowatt-hours of electricity, according to data released by the village. The figure has nearly doubled compared to their electricity production in 2013.

Roh Sung-nam, a resident of the village and head of its management office, told The Korea Herald that their original goal was to reduce electricity consumption by 10 percent. The plan became more ambitious when they realized they could do more to make their neighborhood “energy self-sufficient.”

“Most of our villagers are in their 70s, so we are old enough to see that climate change is real. We wanted to make a real difference in the world that we leave our grandchildren. That’s when we thought why not produce electricity, not just reduce consumption?”

Roh’s village is one of Seoul’s designated energy self-sufficient villages that produces the energy it needs and promotes activities in the communities to reduce energy consumption with the help of the city government‘s subsidies.

When the city government started designating energy self-sufficient towns in 2012, just seven had joined, including Sipjaseong Village.

Over the past six years, however, the success of the project seems to have inspired other communities as well: the number of participating villages went up to 80 as of 2017 and reached 100 this year, according to the city.

Seoul invested a total of 1.1 billion won ($1.02 million) for the designated villages that produce energy and practice energy conservation, while providing education programs to help the residents understand the program better.

The city data show that the villages in their third year of the energy program saved electricity consumption by 15 percent on average. Separately, through local energy-saving activities, such as “Energy Festival” and “Lights-off Campaign,” the residents saved on power consumption by an average of 7.2 percent in 2016.

Roh said the monthly electricity bill is now less than 40,000 won ($37) from over 200,000 won before the installation of solar panels. But for Roh, the town’s participation in Seoul’s green energy project is not just about the savings.

“We all feel we are in charge as members of the community to protect our environment through renewable energy use and fight climate change. We are not environmental activists, but we believe our combined efforts can reduce the reliance on nuclear and coal-fired power plants,” Roh said.

“We want more communities to participate. We just believe everyone should try to do something for our environment and for the future of our children,” Roh added.

The city government’s push for renewable energy is also in line with the Moon Jae-in administration‘s pledge to suspend the operation of aging coal power plants due to worsening air pollution and to raise the proportion of electricity generated from renewable energy from 1.1 percent to 20 percent by 2030.

“It is a global trend to raise the proportion of renewable energy and reduce energy consumption as well as carbon dioxide emissions,” said Kim Yeon-ji, an official at the energy division of the Seoul city government.

“Seoul’s support for citizen-driven energy self-sufficient villages and activities is part of broader measures, a stepping stone to bolstering green energy,” Kim added.

By Bak Se-hwan (sh@heraldcorp.com)