The government said Monday it has decided to push back the target year for mandatory use of renewable energy by two years, a move aimed at easing requirements for the country’s power companies.
The majority of the country’s eight power companies have failed to meet their annual requirements since the so-called renewable portfolio standards (RPS) were introduced in 2011. Power companies with generation capacity of more than 500,000 kilowatts were required to produce at least 2 per cent of all their power output from renewable sources.
Under the current RPS system, the power companies must gradually increase the portion of power generated from renewable sources to 10 per cent by 2022.
“Considering the realistic conditions for the power companies in fulfilling their requirements, the government has decided to extend the target year for the 10 per cent RPS requirement by two years from 2022 to 2024,” the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said in a press release.
The decision came at a deregulation meeting held over the weekend.
To help further ease the burdens for power companies, the government also decided to recognize waste heat from the power companies as renewable energy.
Currently, the eight power companies annually create some 240 million gigacalories of waste heat, equivalent to 160 million barrels of oil, but only 0.48 per cent of the waste heat is put to any use.
The ministry said the waste heat, for instance, can be used in farming.
“(Recognizing waste heat as renewable energy) will allow practical use of waste energy while also helping ease RPS requirements for power companies,” it said. “It may also be used to help support the country’s farmers who are expected to face greater difficulties due to the additional implementation of new free trade agreements.”
