Photo: Colourbox

Republic of Korea showing interest in Danish energy solutions

Energy
Recently, the Embassy of the Republic of Korea and DTU met and exchanged renewable energy experience.

Sustainable solutions were on the agenda at a joint conference in Denmark in October between DTU and the Embassy of the Republic of Korea under the headline: ‘Potential of Korea-Denmark Cooperation in Renewable Energy’.

Around 50 DTU researchers, directors from the private sector, and a number of ambassadors attended the conference, which was opened by the Ambassador of the Republic of Korea in Denmark Jai-chul Choi and DTU President Anders Bjarklev.

The conference took place just before the P4G—Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030 Copenhagen Summit, a global initiative that aims to speed up the sustainable transformation within the framework of the global goals.

“When we combine the Korean ‘fast-mover’ approach with the green, Danish ‘first-mover’ approach, we have an excellent starting point for creating a green economy together. I hope that this conference will help to promote DTU and our competences on the area to the Koreans, while hopefully also helping DTU researchers to see which collaboration opportunities there are in the Republic of Korea,” says DTU President Anders Bjarklev.

Wind power potential on the Korean Peninsula
Among other things, the conference played host to presentations by the Republic of Korea on Jeju Island, which is scheduled to become the world’s first island with zero carbon emissions, as well as Danish presentations on, e.g., EnergyLab Nordhavn and Bornholm as the national test centre for new energy technology.

The Koreans were particularly interested in a presentation by Head of Section Jake Badger of DTU Wind Energy, who presented an analysis and assessment of the wind power potential of the entire Korean Peninsula based on data from DTU’s Global Wind Atlas.

The wind atlas contains a large amount of information that describes wind resources all over the world and gives energy planners useful wind data for exploiting wind power. It shows, e.g., a detailed description of the wind for every 250 m and makes it possible to see how hills and ground surfaces affect the wind. With the atlas, it is also possible to pinpoint the challenges associated with the wind conditions for a specific region.

“The challenges for the Korean peninsula include the fact that part of the terrain is very complex with steep hills and mountains, which makes it difficult to model the wind flows. On top of that, coastal areas make up a large part of the peninsula. Here, the wind flows are difficult to model due to the sea breeze and the surface transition from land to sea,” says Jake Badger.

The areas showing potential include the coastal areas around Kosong, Pogang, Mokpo, and Ryongyon as well as the rather complex terrain areas around Hamgyong-Namdo and P’yongan-Namdo. 

Jake Badger believes that assessing the exact wind turbine potential will require the help of local partners working with meteorological modelling, such as industrial partners, national weather agencies, and universities.