It comes just months after the country’s new administration took office in May (2022) and looks to broaden its hydrogen strategy which had previously heavily focused on areas such as hydrogen-powered vehicles and power generation fuel cells.
As part of its revitalised hydrogen plans, the Government has set the targets of producing 30,000 hydrogen-powered commercial vehicles by 2030, building 70 liquid hydrogen fuelling stations, and ensuring clean hydrogen meets 7.1% of the nation’s energy mix by 2036.
In a step to achieving the ambitious targets, the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy (MOTIE), will look to secure advanced technologies, including ’10 top-ranked’ items to nurture 600 hydrogen focused companies by 2030.
The Government has also said the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), will hope to further develop local water electrolysis technology and gain liquefaction and ammonia process technologies.
H2 View understands the new administration has announced it will look to establish a clean hydrogen supply chain to nurture a ‘world-leading’ hydrogen industry. As part of those plans, the Government has announced three major growth strategies which aim to scale-up, build-up, and level-up.
Scale-up
The country’s scale up strategy sets out to expand the clean hydrogen ecosystem by establish a global supply chain and creating large-scale demand for power generation and transportation.
According to a statement, it aims to achieve hydrogen enriched combustion by combining hydrogen and ammonia, as well as growling the supply of hydrogen buses and trucks with production bases being built overseas.
Build-up
Additionally, the South Korean Government has said it intends to establish a legal framework for hydrogen distribution infrastructure to accelerate the utilisation of the clean fuel.
Plans to build-up include building the ‘world’s largest’ liquid hydrogen plant and fuelling station, as well as installing a hydrogen pipeline. Furthermore, plans include opening a hydrogen bid market, business laws, and introducing a clean hydrogen certification system.
Level-up
In a bid to establish itself as hydrogen powerhouse, the level-up strategy looks to secure core technologies for the entire hydrogen lifecycle from production and distribution to utilisation.
With a focus on nurturing strategic areas such as electrolysis and hydrogen turbines, companies with ‘technical prowess’ will receive Government support, with business-hampering regulations set to be removed, with domestic production planned to become commercialised for exporting to external markets.
Korea: Paving the way in the hydrogen race
With a bounce my flight Qr858 landed at Incheon airport sometime in the latter part of 2020. A start of a new assignment in Korea had finally been kicked off and the excitement, to see what the hydrogen hype in South Korea was all about, was on a high.
It was with big expectations and a comprehensive Korean hydrogen network on my LinkedIn I went about to establish my Swedish clients APAC office. South Korea is a fantastic country nestled in between the two hydrogen economies of China and Japan. Maybe because of this geographical position, Koreans are extremely competitive in the development of the hydrogen sector and, as most of us have seen, there is a lot of media exposure from the big (and sometime small) players, with the Korean government often backing and supporting new hydrogen, fuel cell or electrolysis ventures. These afore mentioned ventures would traditionally have encountered a lot of red tape and bureaucracy. The government has developed what they call “sandboxes” which allows hydrogen projects, like filling stations (HRS) and storage facilities to be built without a revised law. Building hydrogen-charging stations in city areas is not allowed due to many regulations related to residential areas, commercial areas and cultural assets. With the regulatory sandbox, the related infrastructure can be installed without revising any laws…
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