64-House Solar Village Saves Residents $37,700 Annually (Calif.)

[jpak]

http://ecoworldly.com/2008/05/04/64-house-solar-village-saves-residents-37700-annually/

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.

With South Korea attempting to tackle climate change, the environmental benefits of placing solar panels on homes are obvious. However, the government’s decision to test large-scale domestic solar technology in Shinhyocheon came mostly from South Korea’s drive to reduce reliance on foreign fossil fuel imports. In a way, Shinhyocheon is an experiment in energy independence.

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[Demeter]

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