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Solar System Powers Donggwang Green Village on Semi-Tropical Jeju Island

Donggwang is on the western half of Jeju-do, the largest of South Korea’s semi-tropical southern islands. Near the village, Halla Mountain, a volcano and the tallest mountain in South Korea, rises from the island’s center amidst a patchwork of small farms.

Donggwang has achieved what even the most powerful countries in the world are still struggling to accomplish: total energy independence with clean technology.

In many ways, Shinhyocheon is just a typical suburb. It’s in Nam-gu, on the southern outskirts of Gwangju, one of South Korea’s biggest cities. In fact, if you don’t look closely, the Shinhyocheon solar village is easy to miss. Of the 1.4 million people living in Gwangju, most have never heard of it. Local taxi drivers wrinkle their brows and shrug; even the tourist information center in downtown Gwangju has trouble finding it on the map.

But for those who know it, Shinhyocheon deserves a place in energy history. In 2004, it became South Korea’s first solar village – a neighborhood of 64 solar powered houses where residents enjoy cheap, clean energy. The solar panels in this neighborhood generate over 115 MW of energy in a year. For each resident, that translates into an annual savings of around $589 USD, or a total of $37,700 for all 64 houses combined.

Inspired by Shinhyocheon’s success, the local government is planning to expand the number of solar houses in Nam-gu by adding 340 new sun-powered residential buildings.

By 2010, China will unveil a modern city powered by 100% renewable resources, capable of growing all of its own food using organic farming methods and recycling all of its waste.

The future city, Dongtan, is growing out of an island at the mouth of the Yangtze River Delta. The unique Ecocity being built on the island is also a creative way to protect the island’s ecologically sensitive wetland environment from China’s fast-paced development.

What will life in China’s first ecocity look like?

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If the five easy steps in this video are not enough for you, then take a look at this list from Seoul’s 2008 Earth Day organizers of ten more ways to go green, Korean style.

Today’s topic is inspired by Solar Today magazine. “Scrubbing Carbon from the Breeze” was written by Rona Fried, Ph.D., president of SustainableBusiness.com in the May/June 2008 issue. Unfortunately this particular article is not available online.

As climate change become a more central issue for people and governments around the globe, a lot of people are looking for solutions - fast solutions. If there were a quick and inexpensive way to dramatically reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, we should go for it right? Well a number of “quick fix” solutions, which have centered around hacking the environment to fight climate change, have been floating around for years. One strategy is to capture the CO2 with plankton and bury it in the ocean (which is much easier and cheaper than pumping it into the ground). Another is to change the composition of our atmosphere to reflect sunlight. Others tend to be more sci-fi and outlandish - but all of them might just turn out to be disastrous.

The American Wind Energy Association held a press conference today (4/21/08) to discuss the present and future of their industry in the United States. Representatives from Siemens, Vestas, GE and Gamesa were there to share their perspectives and answer questions. What they revealed was an industry both optimistic and tenuous; their products are in high demand, but they are reliant on tax credits for large-scale expansion. Given the increasing popularity and regulatory necessity of sustainable power generation, both American and international turbine producers are eying the practically limitless growth potential in the United States. All they need is stability in policy to dramatically expand their manufacturing and R&D capabilities, simultaneously creating thousands of jobs and a competitive American industry.

The United States has a natural edge when it comes to wind energy. Unlike Europe, we have a lot of land with which to harness wind, including across sparsely populated areas. If NIMBY isn’t a problem, the potential for sustainable energy generation is even greater.

Following are the top international environmental news for during the week of April 13 - 20. See an archive of top international environmental news here.

Asia

Two “Extinct” Species Discovered

First there was Swinshoe’s softshell turtle, and then the Javan Elephant. Is this more commonplace than we might believe?

Frankly, no. Despite the occasional hubbub over an animal science has lost track of– say, the Coelacanth– we’ve witnessed something extraordinary. Swinshoe’s turtle was previously believed to be extinct in the wild, with only three remaining in captivity, and therefore every one of these 300-pound turtles is a critical find.

Continue reading: Environmental Graffiti. Hot in media: Stumble Upon.

Top international environmental news for during the week of April 6 - 13:

Europe — World’s first commercial tidal turbine installed (EcoGeek)

“The world’s first commercial tidal turbine has been installed in its home in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough.

Though it has yet to be turned on, it will be the first commercial power-producing tidal generator when it is (sometime later this year). The turbine has two 16 meter-wide rotors and will be able to run for 18-20 hours a day. The turbine was installed off the coast in an area known for fast moving waters, and because the rotors will only spin 10-20 times in a minute, it is unlikely to disturb marine life.”

Source: EcoGeek. Hot in media: Digg EcoGeek, Digg TimesOnline.

Africa — Tree-Nation (Tree-Nation)

“Tree-Nation is an ecological project with a focused objective: To plant 8 million trees in Niger, Africa to fight desertification! Large-scale plantation of trees will increase the land’s productivity and re-generate the soil.

Paul Fenn of Local Power called me first thing this morning. Paul wrote California’s Community Choice Energy law (AB117) and his firm is a finalist to operate San Francisco’s Community Choice Energy program, which will build 360 MW of local renewable energy. But thats not what he called about.

Paul was excited about Sonoma County’s plan to achieve “carbon-free” water by 2015 - that is, using renewable energy sources such as solar and geothermal to power the county’s entire network of treatment plants and pumps. The plan is close to being released and today the SF Chronicle reported on one of the key initiatives to take the waste out of wastewater.

If I were to travel north-north-west for a few hours, I would exit Melbourne-proper within about an hour (the traffic can be hell!). After that I would slowly make my way up through country-suburbia and enter towns which would like to consider themselves ‘good old fashioned country towns’. I would eventually hit Mildura, where a new solar plant will soon begin to emerge from the ground.

This story was kicked off by this one here at ForeignPolicy.com, where they list several new solar projects going up around the world. Considering that there was one close to home, I decided to focus in on that one.

Expected to cost some $420 million AUD ($270 million USD) the project is being constructed by Hong Kong-owned TRUenergy. The plant – which is planned to begin generating power by 2010, and be completed 2013 – is looking to provide solar power to some 45,000 homes.

The project will avoid an approximate 437,000 tons of annual greenhouse-gas emissions that would have been produced by a coal-fired plant of the same output. But despite the seeming size of this project, the total output will only account for .1 percent of Australia’s electricity generation (according to statistics from 2006).

As solar technologies improve and costs fall, South Korea’s plans for solar energy are heating up.

In the coastal city of Gangneung, South Korea, look up and you’re likely to see solar panels or a solar water heater on the roof of at least one house.

The rice patties to the North of Gangneung offer up a view of a dozen such solar power facilities on the rooftops at the edge of one of the city’s newest neighborhoods.

If the sight of so many solar homes doesn’t convince you that South Korea is serious about solar, consider the newly proposed 20 MW solar plant. When it’s completed later this year, it will rival Spain as the largest photovoltaic solar plant in the world.

According to BP, South Korea’s national goal to produce 1 GW of solar energy by 2012 would make it the world’s tenth largest solar market. Even more ambitiously, the country hopes to reach 4 GW of solar production by 2020 and 18 GW by 2030.