Innovative solutions for Development Effectiveness

4th High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness / Private Sector Forum 
17H00-18H00, Wednesday, 30th November, 2011
Busan, KOREA

Thank you. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, we’ve been privileged to hear some excellent remarks.

1. Now, I’m glad to have this opportunity to talk about some of the innovative solutions that we have developed at Daesung Group. 

Daesung Group is not the largest energy company in Korea but one of the oldest one. We are the major players in the natural gas industry, providing about 20% of the Korean market with our natural gas retail business.

2. Whenever I visit Mongolia, (for which I serve as the Honorary Consul and the Chairman of the Economic Cooperation for both countries) I feel as if I am going “back to the future.”  That is because Mongolia seems to represent a microcosm of a future world which I believe would suffer from total poverty of Food, Energy and Water. If we do not change the way we live now.

3. So, I’d like to start with a project that had its origins nine years ago in a small village in Mongolia: the Naran Project. Naran meaning, ‘The Sunshine.’ 
With an experimental hybrid solar and wind power system–SolaWin–we were able to demonstrate the possibilities of providing off-grid energy solutions to Mongolia. 
Here you see a view of the entire SolaWin complex with wind turbines, solar panels and monitoring house.
 
4. On the basis of SolaWin’s success in Naran, Daesung Group–in collaboration with the governments of Korea and Mongolia – expanded this project to include a more comprehensive project: the Green Eco-Energy Park Project or the GEEP for short. 
Located on a 3.3 million square meter plot of desert land – leased from the Mongolian government in Nalayh, 50 kilometers southeast of Ulaanbaatar – GEEP’s purpose is twofold.

First: to use power generated from renewable energy technology to pump groundwater for agricultural use.

Second: to offer a viable solution to the threat of desertification. 
 
5. Let’s take a closer look at the site. GEEP is powered by an 80 kilowatt photovoltaic system plus three wind turbines each producing 10 kilowatts.

6. To the rear is the monitoring house and battery blocks, while, at the front is located one of the site’s three reservoirs.

7. One of GEEP’s purposes is also to provide a model for sustainable economic viability in the local community (economy?). We hope this helps to stabilize the nomadic lifestyle of the Mongolian people.

Here, at the site’s greenhouse, vegetables including potatoes, lettuce, and beans are being grown on an experimental basis.

The interesting fact is that this dessert land was no where in Mongolia (?) - no one was interested in this project.  Now, the Mongolian Government started to build a huge Ghinggish Khan theme park. The former President, Enger Bayar (?), once informed me that he was very pleased with this project and shared with me a secret that they are considering to build a new airport where the Russians used to have their air force base.  Also, last year President Hu Jintao of China gave a generous donation to secure their coal mine project and the Mongolian Government is planning to build a new school campus nearby.  So now this dessert land is surrounded by many vibrant projects.  Now the Mongolia government seems to regret that they have leased this place for free.  This shows how a project can be profitable while it is beneficial to the local community as well.  We are regarding this renewable energy project as one of the new growth engine for our company.   Just as other companies do in the renewable industries, we are having a hard time to find economic feasibility for the renewable energy without the government support. So our aim is to develop a system which we can sustain itself without the public support.  But here, in the middle of nowhere, in the cold dessert, we have finally found a possibility of a very profitable business model, and I say that, “Fight desertification, then you can make money. If you do good you might end up doing well.”

8. With the success of the GEEP Project another village, Mandakh Soum – located 500 kilometers southeast of Ulaanbaatar – was selected for the SolaWin Project. 

The objectives of this project include supplying environmentally-friendly electric power with renewable energy, and providing a water supply for small farms ultimately helping to fight desertification. 

9. Shown here are children tending vegetables grown using pumped ground water.
Vegetables are rare in Mongolia and these will add an important nutritive element to the villagers’ diet.

10. With SolaWin’s proven success in Mongolia, this model has been replicated or is under feasibility study for replication in Asia and Africa. These are the places: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Cambodia, and Bangladesh.  In Ethodpia, we recently finished a 3 million project in cooperation with KOICA.  

The purposes are similar: producing and supplying power by using renewable energy and supplying water for drinking and agriculture by using an electric pumping system.

11. For example, just last month we completed this project in Ethiopia.

Budgeted at three million dollars, it includes both the installation of solar power and solar home sets.

12. In conjunction with KOICA(Korea International Cooperation Agency), drinking water is being provided to 10,000 people.

13. As you can see, SolaWin offers an integrated total solution to the serious poverty of Food Energy Water or FEW poverty.

14. Finally, I’d like to mention our new initiative: Korea’s first solar thermal power system project.
Inaugurated in June this year, this Daesung Group-built system is situated on a 20,000 meter square site.

There are 450 two-square meter heliostats, which reflect sunlight, and a 50-meter tower equipped with a solar heat absorber and a 200 kilowatt power generator.

15. The beautiful natural environment that surrounds Daegu was selected for the building of the solar power tower because the area is sunny throughout the year.

This site is planned to be one of the major stops for visitors to the 2013 World Energy Congress to be held in Daegu.

I introduce this system because in such places as the Middle East and Africa, to which we are going with our Solawin Project, this solar thermal power system is more efficient than photovoltaic because photovoltaic is not very effective is the temperature goes beyond 30 degrees celcius.

The construction of this system represents a major achievement for the Korean energy industry. We plan to replicate it worldwide, utilizing sun tracking and high-efficiency light concentration, especially in the regions of the Middle East and Africa.

Because solar thermal power is much more efficient than photovoltaic generation it will make a significant contribution to addressing the issue of FEW poverty.

16. Through these projects I have come to believe that not only can the private and public sectors collaborate innovatively, but that they can do so to the benefit of all stakeholders.

Remote areas are ready for growth, but such growth needs to be economically sustainable and environmentally friendly. SolaWin and solar thermal power are exemplars of such a thrust and we wish to encourage private and public investment in the emerging nations of the globe through innovative collaboration of Public-Private Partnership.

Thank you very much for your time and commitment to the future.