A farmer drives a combine to harvest rice below an array of solar modules installed on a rice paddy in Gidong Village in Hamyang County, South Gyeongsang Province, Thursday. Courtesy of Hanwha Solutions

Hanwha Q Cells supplies modules optimized for solar sharing

By Park Jae-hyuk

HAMYANG, South Gyeongsang Province ― Hundreds of rectangular solar modules have been put on three-meter poles standing in a 3,000-square-meter rice paddy in the small village of Gidong in Hamyang County, Thursday.

Below the array, a farmer drives a combine to harvest rice for the forthcoming Chuseok holiday next week.

At the Gidong Village Power Plant, around 600 solar modules have generated approximately 100 kilowatts of electricity per year on a rice paddy lent to the village's "solar sharing" social cooperative from local residents, most of whom are too old to farm the land. The amount is large enough for 150 people to use annually.

"As we have used profits from the power plant to upgrade the village's administrative works and enhance welfare benefits, residents have been highly satisfied with the facility," Lee Tae-shik, head of the social cooperative operating the solar power plant, told reporters during a press conference at the village.

Lee Tae-shik, head of Gidong Village's social cooperative, introduces the Gidong Village Power Plant in Hamyang County, South Gyeongsang Province, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Park Jae-hyuk

The press conference was hosted by Hanwha Solutions' Q Cells Division and the state-run Korea Energy Agency, which cooperated in supplying the solar power modules for the agrivoltaic project, to make Korean farms more economically sustainable by creating a new source of income.

"Agrivoltaics enhances the sustainability of farms and enables more efficient use of renewable energy," said Yoo Jae-yeol, head of Hanwha Q Cells' Korean business division. "By manufacturing and supplying modules optimized for agrivoltaics, we will help Korea reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and counteract the climate crisis."

According to the solar energy company, its small modules hardly disrupt cultivation, thanks to their modified size, position and tilt angle so that enough of the sun's rays shine on the crops. In addition, the modules are installed around three to five meters above the ground so that farmers can still operate rice transplanters and combine harvesters without difficulty.

"Because the modules prevent evaporation of water and maintain humidity in farms, they can prevent drought. During the winter, the modules can reduce damage from cold weather by blocking the flow of cold air," said Yeungnam University professor Jung Jae-hak, who will also chair the AgriVoltaics Conference & Exhibition, the fourth annual international congress on agrivoltaic systems, which will be held next April in Daegu.

In order to cope with the decreasing size of farms and the aging population in farming villages, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has been looking for ways since last year to reform regulations on agrivoltaics.

The governments of Japan and European countries have already improved their regulations to boost their agrivoltaic industries. In particular, Japan allows farming villages to generate electricity through solar sharing for up to 20 years if villages continue farming with the solar panel modules in place.

Under Korea's Farmland Act, however, farmers can only use their farmlands for different purposes for up to eight years. The Gidong Village Power Plant, which was built in 2019, should therefore be demolished after 2026, even though its solar panel modules can last over 25 years.

Due to the possibility of the regulation causing economic inefficiency and having a negative impact on Korea's transition to renewable energies, lawmakers have been seeking to revise the law. However, their proposed revision bills have not been passed yet.

"Through the revision to the Enforcement Decree of the Farmland Act, farmers should be allowed to keep using their lands for solar sharing," said Huh Young-joon from the Korea Energy Agency.