An offshore wind power plant on the western coast of Jeju Island is shown in this photo provided by the Korea South-East Power Co.
SEOUL, July 29 (Korea Bizwire) — The government has revised the weighted value of renewable energy certificates (RECs) upward significantly as part of efforts to speed up the prevalence of offshore wind energy.
According to the revision that the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy implemented from Wednesday, the basic weighted value for offshore wind energy REC was revised upward from the current 2.0 to 2.5.
An additional weight of 0.4 is added for every 5-meter increase in water depth and 5-kilometer increase in coverage distance.
RECs, certificates that proves the production and supply of electricity using renewable energy facilities, are a type of subsidy system.
Small operators can gain profits by selling not only the electricity they produce but also the REC they receive from the government in the spot market. The higher the weighted value is, the more REC they can get and thus become more profitable.
The government expects the upward revision of the REC weight to contribute to speeding up the distribution of offshore wind energy.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
