Asia Pacific smart grid initiatives
South Korea, which boasts one of the world’s most ambitious decarbonisation strategies, has revealed a KRW27.5 trillion (US$ 24 billion) plan to roll out a nationwide smart grid and install nearly 30,000 electric vehicle charging stations by 2030.
Though its relatively small area and high population density make it a poor fit for most large-scale renewables projects, South Korea’s geographic and economic profile make it a prime candidate for a comprehensive smart grid and other low-carbon installations.
The smart grid will be principally funded by the private sector, with the government set to chip in just 10% of the overall investment over the next two decades. The government has already selected eight consortiums to build demonstration-scale grids, and says it expects 50,000 jobs related to the smart grid to be created in the coming years.
South Korea is hunting desperately for ways to trim its emissions growth and heavy reliance on imported fossil fuels while continuing to foster economic development. Despite having just 48 million inhabitants and an area smaller than Iceland, it is already the world’s fifth largest importer of oil and has the fastest-growing carbon emissions in the OECD.
In 2009 South Korea announced a wide-ranging green stimulus package in response to the financial crisis, pledging KRW 50 trillion to low-carbon projects by 2013, though only a tiny sliver will fund renewables installations.
Huge electronics conglomerates in Japan and Korea, and also China, are poised to have a very big impact on the global smart grid industry.
LG, SK Telecom and KT are already building a domestic smart grid pilot on the island of Jeju, which is south of Seoul in South Korea. The companies are aiming for 30% share of the global smart grid industry. KT, SK Telecom, and LG tend to spend a lot of money on R&D, taking risks and rolling out new products and services that are at the bleeding edge of technology. That can lead to some major innovations.
Japanese companies are also closely eying the US smart grid market. Japanese firms, including Toshiba, Kyocera, Shimizu, Tokyo Gas and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, will spend US$33.4 million on a smart grid project in Los Alamos and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Toshiba says it will install a 1-megawatt storage battery at the Los Alamos site, while Kyocera and Sharp will test smart home, energy management and load control technology.
Then there’s China. The Chinese government plans to spend US$7.32 billion in stimulus funds on building out a smart grid, surpassing even the massive stimulus funds from the US government, in order help manage the doubling of its electricity consumption over the next decade.
US companies are flocking to China to try to get ready for the funds, much in the same way Korean and Japanese firms are stepping into the US market. General Electric is to partner with the City of Yangzhou, China, to build a smart grid “demonstration centre” in the city of 4 million. IBM hast signed an agreement with ENN Group, a Chinese energy provider, to form a joint venture focused on “intelligent energy,” and IBM expects to generate a minimum of US$400 million in smart grid revenues in China over the next four years. Hewlett-Packard, Cisco and Accenture, along with metre maker Itron are all also developing smart grid-related business in China.
See: China
See: Japan
See: South Korea
Tagged in: Asia, China, Japan, South Korea
