Wood Mackenzie forecasts that South Korea's electricity rates will rise 24% by 2030 due to substantial investments in renewable energy and the resulting increases in generation and transmission costs.

Wood Mackenzie held an online press briefing on the 15th and announced its power and renewable energy outlook.

Alex Whitworth, who presented the findings, noted that South Korea is expected to invest $89 billion in wind and solar energy over the next 10 years, with over 80 wind and solar projects anticipated to be implemented.

Despite this, South Korea's 2030 target share for solar and wind power generation was announced in the 9th Basic Plan to account for approximately 30%, similar to existing plans. However, Wood Mackenzie expects this to reach 38% by 2030.

In particular, South Korea is well-suited for offshore wind power generation. As offshore wind costs are declining, it represents an appropriate power source capable of replacing expensive gas with limited land availability, according to the analysis.

Despite investments in renewable energy such as solar and wind, South Korea's power sector carbon emissions are projected to increase 7% by 2030. This outlook suggests that current measures are insufficient to achieve aggressive targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Additionally, as renewable energy increases, power stability becomes increasingly important. With the renewable energy share of peak load projected to increase threefold to 65% by 2030, the sharing of reliable and convertible power supply will become crucial.

Accordingly, due to higher generation and transmission costs compared to other markets, South Korea's end-user electricity rates are expected to rise 24% by 2030.

South Korea aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. However, the 2030 reduction target of 24.4% is expected to be more challenging than the ultimate goal.

Additionally, low-carbon hydrogen is expected to be needed across all sectors to reduce fossil fuel consumption. Conversely, domestic supply is expected to be insufficient, with import volumes projected to increase to 9.5Mt by 2050.

Green hydrogen production costs are expected to decline by 50% by 2030.