“Clean Electricity Production to Sales…Higher Utilization of Charging-ESS”

Bright Energy Partners (BEP) is an independent power producer (IPP) based on solar energy. After receiving solar business permits from local governments, it selects construction companies to build solar power plants and sells the electricity produced to Korea Electric Power Corporation. The company owns approximately 200 solar facilities in South Korea. In just three years since officially starting its operations in 2020, its cumulative investment size has exceeded 330 billion won (about $276 million). Notably, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management company, made substantial investments of 130 billion won (about $109 million) in 2021 and 170 billion won (about $142 million) in 2022.

◇The secret behind BlackRock’s 300 billion investment

Heesung Kim, the CEO of BEP, in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Jongno District, Seoul, on the 8th, when asked about the secret to attracting large-scale investments from companies like BlackRock, said, “Thanks to having a good team and a reasonable business model.” Kim stated, “BlackRock noticed that the risk-adjusted return of domestic solar power generation business is excellent among developed countries, and it took over eight months to find a company to invest in. After a long research process, it highly evaluated BEP’s business model and manpower, which can quickly gather high-quality domestic solar assets in a short time, and decided to invest,” he explained.

BEP is a company founded by experts with experience in operating power generation businesses in advanced solar markets such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan. CEO Kim is an energy and capital market expert who has worked at Hanwha Asset Management, Hyundai Motor Securities, Mirae Asset Securities, and other securities and asset management companies, as well as Hanwha Q Cells. Kim said, “BEP is virtually the only company in Korea that has solar professionals with a cumulative transaction record of over 2 trillion won (about $1.67 billion) in the global solar market.”

With substantial investment funds secured, BEP has recently been aggressively expanding its business. This is because it can now acquire solar sites with its own capital without separate project financing (PF). Currently, BEP owns over 200 small and medium-sized solar power plants. The average size of the power plants is between 1 and 3 megawatts (MW). Kim stated, “In the solar power generation industry, it is most important to achieve economies of scale,” and “Our goal is to own a 1-gigawatt (GW) scale solar power plant within three years.” He further explained, “A power generation capacity of 1GW is equivalent to about 1-2 nuclear power plants.”

BEP recently signed a 20-year Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) long-term supply contract with LG Chem. Currently, the company is continuously receiving love calls from domestic and foreign large corporations. Kim said, “Even if all the renewable energy sources installed in Korea are mobilized, it is difficult to meet the demand of the top 3-4 manufacturing companies in Korea, including Samsung Electronics,” and “On the other hand, companies that can provide clean energy are very rare, so if we look at it calmly, it is a market where sellers are in a superior position.”

Heesung Kim, the CEO of Bright Energy Partners, is being interviewed by the Seoul Economic Daily at Bright Energy Partners in Jongno District, Seoul. Photo by Sung Hyung-ju

◇Expansion of the ‘Water’ rapid charging network for electric vehicles

Recently, BEP has jumped into the area of directly selling electricity in addition to producing it. The area where CEO Kim is focusing on is ‘Water’, a rapid charging network for electric vehicles that was launched in November last year. Although less than a year has passed since its launch, it has already completed installation at major tourist destinations across the country such as △National Baekdudaegan Arboretum (Bonghwa County, Gyeongbuk) △Geoje Botanical Garden (Geoje City, Gyeongnam) △Daecheon Beach (Boryeong City, Chungnam) △Yangyang Surf Beach (Yangyang County, Gangwon) △Mongsanpo Beach (Taean County, Chungnam). Water plans to open new charging stations in the parking lots of major national parks in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province in the fourth quarter of this year and the first quarter of next year. Kim said, “Most of the parking lots in national parks are above ground and are easier to access than urban building parking lots, so we expect a steady demand for electric vehicle charging,” and “We will greatly increase the rapid charging facilities so that pollution-free electric vehicles that do not emit carbon can visit the ‘green lungs’ in the city, the national parks in the metropolitan area, on a regular basis.”

Fortunately, a revision of the Electricity Business Act was recently passed in the National Assembly, providing a legal basis for direct trading of electricity produced from renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and hydropower at electric vehicle charging stations. Kim said, “We can now store the power generated from solar and wind power in energy storage systems (ESS) and sell it directly through electric vehicle chargers without going through the power market,” and “Even if an electric vehicle charging business operator produced power through its own power generation facilities, it was impossible to sell the power without going through the power market before the passage of the bill.”

In the long run, BEP plans to enter the ESS (Energy Storage System) sector. The plan is to leap to a company that handles the production, storage, and sale of electricity in a one-stop manner. Kim said, “If we can link renewable energy sources to large-capacity energy storage devices, we can contribute to adjusting national power supply or stabilizing the system,” and “Renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power are intermittent sources of power, but if they are linked with ESS, it is possible to store energy when power demand is low and use the stored energy when power demand is high.”

Heesung Kim, the CEO of Bright Energy Partners, is posing with Gyeongbokgung Palace in the background at Bright Energy Partners in Jongno District, Seoul. Photo by Sung Hyung-ju

◇Urgent need to ease the unique ‘distance regulation’ in the world

CEO Kim emphasized that for the solar industry to grow, it is urgent to abolish irrational regulations. The most urgent issue is to ease the distance regulation. Currently, solar power plants cannot be installed within 200 meters to 1 kilometer from the road. He said, “This is a regulation that requires the installation of solar power plants far from major roads or residential areas, (such as distance) local governments are setting ordinances, so regulations vary from region to region,” and “This is a regulation that only exists in our country in the world.” He pointed out. He also said, “The ordinances related to the distance of local governments are regulations that do not exist in the superior law,” and “It’s regrettable that solar power does not harm the surrounding houses.”