With anticipation that future energy industry will mainly evolve based on environmentally friendly energy solutions, the Daesung Group has been positively engaged in the development of renewable clean energy at its Daesung Institute for Clean Energy according to Younghoon David Kim, Chairman of Daesung Group. As part of the renewable clean energy scheme, Daesung Group started several projects for energy-poor Mongolia in 2002. The first project is a complex power generative system through wind and solar energy, that is, what Daesung Group calls the Solarwin system. Through the system, the Daesung Group has been supplying stable and clean energy to the village of Naran Soum, situated in the heart of a desert which was completely isolated without the benefit of a power supply.

The Solarwin system is an installation of electric generators in the desert to generate wind and solar energy and pump up underground water for reforestation of the desert, thus preventing further spread of the desert. The whole process began with the DURE-Gobi project.

Based on the success of the Naran Soum project, Daesung Group expanded the scope of the Solarwin system and is now pushing the Green Eco-Energy Park (GEEP) project. The GEEP project is aimed at producing organic farm produce on green tracts of land formed through reforestation projects under the Solarwin system. The GEEP project further plans to develop the tourism industry on the green land created through several theme parks. Along this vein, a building is scheduled for completion around the end of this year in Ulaanbaatar and the opening of a large-scale international conference is under preparation to coincide with the dedication of the building in April of next year. Such multi-purpose projects are not limited to Mongolia alone. The Daesung Group plans to expand the project to other countries with similar problems to Mongolia through the expansion of a comprehensive project like renewable clean energy development.

The Solarwin system means clean energy produced without environmental pollution unlike electric power generated with petroleum or atomic energy.

Elevation of Korea's global position

One major achievement of Chairman Younghoon David Kim is to induce the 2013 World Energy Congress to Daegu City as part of his efforts to promote Korea's status in the global energy industry. Ever since his election as WEC Vice Chairman for Asia-Pacific and South Asia in 2005, Chairman Kim has covered 300,000 kilometers in the past three years to induce the 2013 World Energy Congress to come to Korea. During the period he visited 12 countries in 110 days, meeting with foreign energy leaders, pleading for their support in holding the 2013 World Energy Congress in Daegu City. The countries he visited included mainly the United States, Britain, China, Japan, India, Italy, Mongolia, Switzerland, Australia and New Zealand.

Chairman Kim recalls his dream to induce the 2013 World Energy Congress to Daegu City as follows:

"Immediately after I was elected as WEC Vice Chairman for Asia-Pacific and South Asia in 2005, I arrived at a decision to make public what I had been planning, that is, inducement of the 2013 World Energy Congress to Daegu City. During the World Energy Conference period in Rome in November 2007, I announced through official luncheons that Korea plans to host the 2013 World Energy Congress in Daegu City, Korea. However, my plan was immediately faced with opposition from Denmark, a leading nation in renewable energy, and South Africa that wanted the 2013 WEC conference to be held in Durban. Both countries argued for balanced continental arrangement of the congress site. Therefore, taking advantage of my close relationship with WEC Vice Chairman Zhang Guobao, bureau director of the Chinese Energy Bureau, I persuaded Zhang and the Japanese delegate to support a Korean bid to hold the 2013 WEC in Korea, thus presenting an impression that China, Japan and Korea are working jointly together for Korea's benefit. I also did my best to get support from Britain, a leading opinion leader in WEC and India. In this way, the initial tide against Korea was turned around. My personal network with foreign ambassadors also contributed to soliciting for open support from Italy, Hungary and Austria. Also upon confirming that the report on New Zealand's support for South Africa was not true, I persuaded New Zealand through New Zealand's ambassador to Korea, with whom I enjoyed good relations."

Chairman Kim also delivered a keynote speech at the Energy Leaders Summit, jointly sponsored by the World Energy Conference and the Financial Times of London in September 2008. His keynote speech was greeted with a good response, thus making Korea known on the world stage. Chairman Kim, also known as Vice Chairman of the WEC, personally invited foreign WEC delegates to dinner in order to get their support for Korea's 2013 bid. On every important occasion of the WEC, he also invited foreign energy leaders to a private luncheon or dinner for their support to Korea.

On October 27, 2008, that is, 10 days before the final vote by the Executive Board of Directors in Mexico, Chairman Kim, in his capacity as WEC Vice Chairman, sent mails to individual members of WEC countries who have voting rights, asking to give their support to Daegu City. As a result, the Vice Chair from Nigeria who is also the founding member of the World Energy Council and a supporter of the Republic of South Africa replied in a letter, pledging his open support to Daegu City. Also a neighboring African country promised its support to Korea. On November 6, two days before the final voting day, Vice Chairman Norberto de Franco Mederios who is in charge of South America sent a mail promising the support to Korea from seven South American countries including Brazil, thus turning the voting tide in favor of Korea. Unlike other Korean delegates who arrived in Mexico on the eve of final voting, Vice Chairman Kim arrived there earlier, engaging in votegetting activities. Out of 60 voting countries, 34 expressed their intention to vote for Korea. All this is due to sustained efforts by Chairman Kim who alone secured more than half of the 34 countries.

Aside from such vote-gathering efforts, Chairman Kim also hosted the Daesung World Energy Forum on May 10, 2007, sponsored the WEC Global Energy Forum on May 21-23, 2008 and assisted other similar international functions, inviting foreign energy leaders of WEC countries and convincing them of Korea's capability to sponsor the 2013 World Energy Congress.

Upon Chairman Kim's suggestion to his acquaintance Kim Seung-hwan, Chief Secretary of Foreign Diplomacy and Security Affairs in the Blue House, that the campaign to host the 2013 World Energy Congress in Daegu City should be elevated to the governmental level from the local level, it was agreed to wage a governmental level campaign and to mobilize the support of Korean overseas diplomatic missions for this purpose. Two advisors of Daesung Group - Lee Chong-mu who once served as Korean ambassador to India and Hungary and Ms. Suzanna Samstag, former editorial staff of Newsweek Magazine in Seoul - have fulfilled their shares of duties as regional manager and liaison officer respectively for the Asia-Pacific area in inviting the 2013 WEC to Daegu City. Especially, Ms. Samstag has done much for smooth communication flow between the WEC headquarters and the WEC Korean Committee.

The GEEP project for Ulaanbaatar, capital of Mongolia, for which 816 acres of desert land were appropriated for reforestation purposes, also decisively served in the inducement of the 2013 WEC to Daegu City. As a major reason for inviting the 2013 World Energy Congress to Durban, the Republic of South Africa cited their Inga project, a huge energy project for the Congo. To counter it, Chairman Kim proposed the GEEP project to be adopted as a model project in part of a global effort to prevent the further spread of desert across the world. Later it was adopted as the Flagship Project by the World Energy Council.

In the meantime, Chairman Kim also engaged in vigorous press activities, citing the important role of the World Energy Congress for the local press and stressing the significance of inducement of the 2013 World Energy Congress to Korea. In the past three years, Chairman Kim attracted the sustained interest of the Korean people in such unfamiliar words as World Energy Congress and WEC General Assembly through nearly 500 news articles.

In short, through his omnidirectional inducement efforts, he won the whole-hearted support of Daegu citizens, and he made the important role of WEC known widely through global energy conferences and press activities. He is a unique standard-bearer for inviting 2013 World Energy Congress to Korea.

Mutual cooperative development plans

Korea's competitive power in the green industry is still in its infancy. Therefore, the Korean government's low-carbon green industry policy still entirely relies on imported energy resources. In this situation, the government's series of plans to build one million houses using renewable energy, to foster a green car industry that is environmentally friendly, to introduce a carbon cash back system for electronic products and to carry out a carbon neutral campaign on a higher pitch are an encouraging indication for the future of the renewable energy industry for Korea.

 

What is needed at this stage is the government's wise and effective support for Korean businesses that are striving to gain competitive power in an environmentally friendly green industry in the global markets. Businessmen are eagerly looking toward President Lee Myung-bak to iron out effective policies in this direction because President Lee is known to be more knowledgeable than his predecessors about global economic issues. As a matter of fact, automobile industries in Korea, led by Hyundai and Kia motor companies, have long been engaged in the development of a hybrid car.

The carbon cash back system by Samsung and LG electronics companies indicates the sustained efforts to save electric power consumption through improved products and also to reduce electric power to the minimum standby. On the occasion of the Government announcement of a vision for low-carbon green growth, it is expected that timely government support in this field will boost Korea's efforts to gain global competitive power.

The government support to Daesung Group in the renewable energy industry is very significant for its GEEP project. Through the support from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Daesung Group is pushing 816 acres of reforestation for Ulaanbaatar through the Solarwin system, pumping up underground water.

As to the Daegu Energy Environment Consortium that was designated by the Daegu City administration as a civilian investment project, it was largely promoted by Daesung Group for Bangchon-ri trash storage area to utilize its Land Fill Gas (LFG) as an energy resource and it's now being operated successfully through close cooperation and consultation. Thus, civilian cooperation in commercialization of renewable energy and the low carbon green growth industry plays an important role for the realization of government policy. In view of the recent limelight on the renewable energy industry, it is feared that there may exist some bubbles in this field and careful approach is required in extending government support to the industry to not waste the national budget.