KRC Expands Floating Solar to 3GW, Boosting Farmer and Fisherman Benefits
The Korea Rural Community Corporation (KRC) announced on the 7th a new business approach to expand large-scale solar power plants built on water (floating solar) to 3 gigawatts (GW), returning more of the generated profits to farmers, fishermen, and local residents. The background for this plan is the chronic shortage of funds for agricultural water supply. While the appropriate annual budget for on-site agricultural maintenance is approximately 663 billion won, the actual available budget stands at only 435.8 billion won (156.6 billion won from state funds, 279.2 billion won from the corporation's own funds), resulting in an annual shortfall of about 200 billion won.
The 'profit-sharing model,' which completely reforms the existing profit distribution structure, will be applied to large-scale private investment projects. Previously, profits were distributed with 70% going to the power producer, 20% to KRC, and 10% to local residents. However, KRC is changing this structure to a system where local residents, KRC, and power producers equally share the profits in a 3:3:3 ratio. The proportion of resident participation through bonds has also been increased from the previous 4% to over 8%, expanding dividend income.
Small-scale reservoirs will be developed in conjunction with the government's national task, 'Sunshine Income Villages.' KRC has completed a comprehensive survey of 2,333 reservoirs ranging from 0.1 to 20 megawatts (MW) and plans to support rural energy self-sufficiency and community income generation by leasing reservoirs as power generation sites and sharing the profits with village residents.
KRC President Kim In-jung stated, "We aim to provide safer and more stable services by supplementing the funding for agricultural water supply with profits from solar power generation." He added, "By pursuing projects that expand local residents' benefits, we will improve the quality of life for farmers and fishermen and inject new vitality into rural areas."