In Guyang-ri, a farming village of 70 households about 90 minutes south-east of Seoul, people gather for communal free lunches six days a week. The meals are funded by the village\u2019s one-megawatt solar installation, which generates roughly 10m won ($6,800) in net profit each month.<\/p>\n
\u201cResidents eat lunch together every day, so we see each other\u2019s faces, talk together,\u201d says Jeon Joo-young, the village chief. \u201cBonds and solidarity between residents become much stronger. Life becomes more enjoyable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The shift has been dramatic. Before the solar project launched in 2022, the village of about 130 people had no restaurant, no easy way to move around, and little communal infrastructure. Now solar revenue pays for meals, a village \u201chappiness bus\u201d for elderly people, a table-tennis facility and cultural activities.<\/p>\n
People in Guyang-ri enjoy a free meal, one of the free public benefits of the solar panels the village had installed Photograph: Guyang-ri village solar cooperative<\/p>\n
The village deliberately chose to spend solar income on welfare rather than individual dividends, a decision Jeon says residents made themselves rather than being persuaded.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you divide money as individual income, people feel disconnected. People who didn\u2019t know each other for years now get to know each other within days\u201d through the restaurant, he says.<\/p>\n
Guyang-ri serves as the national prototype for South Korea\u2019s rapidly expanding \u201csolar income village\u201d programme, which aims to reach 2,500 villages by 2030. The government is aiming to create 700 this year \u2013 up sharply from roughly 150.<\/p>\n
The acceleration is part of President Lee Jae Myung\u2019s effort to use the Iran crisis as a catalyst for a faster clean energy transition. South Korea imports more than 90% of its primary energy, including roughly 70% of crude oil through the strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Lee has repeatedly framed fossil fuel dependency as a dangerous vulnerability, telling his cabinet that the \u201cnation\u2019s fate\u201d depends on energy transition.<\/p>\n
Many of the renewable targets predate the crisis, including a goal to generate 20% of electricity from renewables by 2030 and phase out coal by 2040<\/a>, but officials say the pace and political urgency have shifted sharply, and funding increased.<\/p>\n A supplementary budget allocates about 500bn won to energy transition, funding grid infrastructure upgrades and increasing overall annual support for renewable energy projects to a record 1.1tn won ($670m).<\/p>\n Other villagers will be given 400bn won in low-interest loans to accelerate the deployment of solar panel projects. Photograph: Guyang-ri village solar cooperative<\/p>\n Additionally, 400bn won in low-interest loans will be provided to the villages programme to accelerate deployment.<\/p>\n Kim Sung-whan, the minister of climate, energy and environment, said: \u201cAround the world, the Middle East war is driving even faster acceleration of renewable energy transition, so Korea too must pick up the pace.\u201d<\/p>\n Renewing an old problem<\/p>\n But as renewable programmes scale up, they are colliding with the electricity grid\u2019s capacity. Large parts of the south and south-west, where solar and wind development has concentrated, are already at or near capacity limits. Gigawatts of renewable projects are waiting for grid connection, with some renewable capacity in effect going to waste.<\/p>\n