Local authority plans to install solar panels on all city’s buildings


Seoul Metropolitan Government announced Thursday it would reduce energy consumption by the equivalent of one nuclear power plant unit as part of its anti-atomic power drive.

It will also reduce dependence on nuclear and fossil fuel energy in favor of alternative energy sources, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said at a news conference.

“Seoul plans to improve self-sufficiency in energy from 2.8 percent now to 8 percent in 2014 and 20 percent in 2010,” said Park.

The city government aims to save 200 tons of oil equivalent, equal to the amount of energy produced from a unit of the nation’s biggest nuclear power plant in Yeong-gwang in South Jeolla Province, and see a reduction in fossil fuel energy consumption.

Park has called for the scrapping of nuclear power amid intensified global campaigns against nuclear energy since the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in Japan last year.

“European countries have set developing alternative energy as their long-term project. Seoul has to achieve replacing traditional energy with sustainable energy as well,” Park said.

He met Kumi Naidoo, international executive director of Greenpeace, earlier in April to share ideas on anti-nuclear power plant campaigns and discuss future energy policy.

The measures include setting up solar panels on the rooftops of every building in the capital to achieve self-sufficiency in energy in the wake of electricity shortages; establishing hydrogen fuel cell plants and small hydro power plants.
It will also turn about 12,200 buildings into energy-efficient ones and require large buildings and subway facilities to replace indoor lights with energy-efficient light-emitting diodes by 2014.

The measures have been drawn up after four months of discussions by the civil committee consisting of citizens and experts working to reduce nuclear power plants.

In order to implement the measures, about 3.2 trillion won ($2.8 billion) will be spent by 2014. The project would reduce greenhouse gases by 7.3 million tons, equal to planting a forest 1,628 times the size of Yeouido, according to officials.

By Lee Woo-young  (wylee@heraldcorp.com)