hankyoreh

Jeju correspondent)

By Huh Ho-joon, Jeju correspondent

Efforts to privatize ‘wind’ in Jeju Island have become a topic of controversy. While large companies are jumping in to take control of Jeju Island’s wind power business, controversy is snowballing over the use of wind as a profit-making resource.

On Feb. 26, Jeju council’s committee for wind power generation reviewed 6 wind power business zones and designated 5: Seogwipo City Pyoseon-myun Gasi, Jeju City Gujwa-eup Gimnyeong, Aewol-eup Uh-eum (conditional contract), Hallim-eub Wolryeong, Sangmyeong as these zones. The sixth zone, Seogwipo City Sumang zone is under additional deliberation.

The committee decided on the 6 zones last July and announced their capacity at 85MW. In October of that year, the committee announced a change of capacity to 146MW. Jeju government is planning to officially announce the wind power generation zones by March 21, and plan for follow-up procedures some time after that.

The problem is that large corporations are planning to control the wind power generation zones. SK D&D is in Gasi (30MW), GS E&C and Hyundai Securities Co. is in Gimnyeong (30MW), Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction is in Wolryeong (24MW), Korea Midland Power is in Sanmyeong (21MW), Hanhwa E&C is in Uh-eum (20MW). POSCO is currently participating in Sumang (21MW). Although in some zones local businesses, the village community and farming cooperatives are also participating in the wind power business, major companies with capital and technology are taking the lead.

The reason for large corporations’ participation in the wind power business is government standards that require a certain portion of their more than 500MW production to come from renewable energy.

According to environmental NGOs, Jeju Island’s wind is of high quality and is profitable when used to generate power. Jeju is referred to as “the island of wind” and uses a large amount of wind power compared to mainland Korea. Electricity generated by wind is more expensive than electricity from other sources. Wind power costs 246 won (as of 2012) (US$0.23) for 1kWH, compared to on the mainland, where wind power costs 170-180 won (US$ 0.16-0.17).

In 2009, Hanshin Energy constructed wind turbines at a cost of 80 billion. Between 2010-2012, those turbines generated 42.1 billion won (US$38.5 million) in profit.

The Jeju chapter of the Korea Federation for Environmental Movement (KFEMJ), after analyzing reports by Korea Power Exchange (KPX), pointed out that of the 49.1 billion won (US$45 million) profit last year, 83%, 40.7 billion won (US$37.2 million) went outside of the Island. Kim Dong-ju, a team leader from KFEM’s Jeju chapter said, “Supposing that wind power generation continues for twenty years, the process will be profitable for at least 12 to 13 years, even factoring in the construction costs. In the process of developing Jeju Island’s tourism business, there have been many cases of development profits being leaked. The same thing is now happening in the wind power business”.

The Jeju Special Act states that the governor should ‘administrate wind power as a public resource’, and island ordinances state that ‘the governor should ensure that the profit from wind power generation business be used for the island citizens’.

The Democratic United Party’s Jeju branch announced, “The public nature of wind power resources should be secured, and Jeju Island and its citizens should be the main actor in the sector‘s development”.

Lee Young-woong Secretary General of KFEM in Jeju said, “Wind is not subject to privatization. Ordinances should be revised so that the Island committee’s consent is required or a period of use of wind power should be set. Return of development profit should also be clearly stated”.

Currently there is 106.25MW of wind being generated on Jeju Island. About 27% is owned by Jeju Energy public corporation (27MW). 73% is owned by Hanshin Energy (33MW) and Korea Southern Power Company (41MW).

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]