Korea holds first statutory Renewable Energy Day, honoring 63

The environment ministry held the first government ceremony marking Renewable Energy Day on Friday, after Oct. 23 was made a statutory anniversary this year, drawing about 300 people from government, parliament, industry and civil society to the Coex convention center in southern Seoul.

Second Vice Minister Lee Ho-hyun attended along with award recipients. Renewable Energy Day had been observed by private groups since 2019, timed to the opening of the KIREC Seoul 2019 international renewable energy conference. The government formalized it by amending the presidential decree on national commemorative days, published on Oct. 20, and named the ministry as the responsible body.

The government presented 12 official commendations — two medals, two decorations, four presidential citations and four prime ministerial citations — up from eight last year, along with 51 ministerial citations, for a total of 63 recipients honored for work on renewable technology and industry growth.

Kim Ki-hong, an executive at Hanwha Solutions, received the Silver Tower Order of Industrial Service Merit for laying the groundwork for commercializing next-generation perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells. Chung Seung-young, a division head at the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning, took the Bronze Tower order for leading international joint research and the hosting of a Mission Innovation ministerial meeting.

This year's ceremony, held from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Grand Conference Room on the fourth floor of Coex, carried the slogan "Sunlight and Wind, and the Future," meant to convey that energy from sun and wind drives daily life and industry and opens the future for the next generation. It opened with a thematic video and ran through opening and welcome remarks, the commemorative address, the awards and a congratulatory performance, with National Assembly Climate, Energy and Environment Committee chair Kim Jung-ho and IRENA Director-General La Camera sending congratulations by video.

A short-video contest on the theme "Renewable Energy, Lighting Up Korea," open from Aug. 21 to Sept. 28, also awarded prizes, with minister's awards going to the top and excellence winners chosen from 253 entries and the winning works to be released on the ministry's and the Korea Energy Agency's official social media. The ceremony lobby hosted an exhibition introducing the award recipients, screenings of the contest winners and works from the eighth Beautiful Solar Power photo contest, organized by the Korea Solar Power Association and the Korea Solar Energy Society.

In his commemorative address, Vice Minister Lee framed the shift to renewables as a global contest for cheap, clean power. "The world is now standing at a historic turning point, moving from the era of oil to the era of electricity, and who secures cleaner and cheaper electricity stably will decide the fate of companies and countries," he said. He asked industry, academia and civil society to join forces for an energy transition centered on renewables, according to the ministry.