Korean photovoltaic industry and technology: Now and future

PV has many similarities with semiconductor and display technologies. PV is thus believed to have a great potential to grow faster if Korea takes a good advantage of both visible and invisible resources such as manpower, technology, and experiences accumulated in the top notch semiconductor and display industries. Korean renewable energy industry has been strongly supported by the President Lee since in 2008 when he declared the new vision toward `low-carbon society and green growth´ that contained an aggressive plan to invest three trillion KRW (approximately three billion USD) into green energy industry R&D over the following five years including PV. The vision has a target to have the renewable energy deliver 11% of the total energy demand by 2030. Korean PV market could be categorized into two groups; in 2006 (1^st wave), and 2010 (2^nd wave) in view of the technology advancements and production volume. Apparently Korea´s flagship companies like OCI, Samsung and Hyundai Heavy Industry seem to jump into the PV industry hurriedly for overseas market expansion beyond the domestic market in Korea. Korean market share of Poly-silicon in the world has been increased greatly to enjoy about 14.1% of the total production as of the end of 2010 and expects to grow up to 30% by 2013 as a result of Korean big companies´ vertical integration in PV value chain. More detailed information on Korean vision toward PV and on Korean industry activities will be presented.