Incentives to encouraging solar power plant operators to use more battery energy storage systems (ESS) are being made available by South Korea’s government.
The government’s decision to provide incentives form part of its efforts to boost the country’s renewable energy market, according to Yonhap news agency.
The country’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy wants to power operators to swap fossil fuels for large-scale batteries, whereby energy can then be distributed at a later date.
Starting next year any company that installs an ESS at their solar power plants will be given additional points on assessment of their renewable energy certificates (RECs).
The REC-tagged electricity is officially regarded as energy generated from a renewable energy resource, including solar light, wind and biomass.
Last year’s incentive system for wind power-generated electricity providers is predicted to create a combined 440 billion won (US$398.8 million) worth of new ESS demand by 2020.
The South Korean government is set to put more than 40 trillion won ($36.2billion) into the renewable energy sector by in the next five years as it looks to reduce fossil fuel use.
