Haenam-gun, Solarsido Enterprise City Leading Carbon Neutrality City Development

March 8 Promise Forest Tree Planting Event, Strong Steps Toward Garden City Begin

[Haenam＝Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Hyun] On the 11th, Haenam-gun, Jeollanam-do announced that it will develop Solar City as a leading city for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

On the 8th, Haenam-gun held a tree-planting event for the Solar City Promise Forest to realize carbon neutrality by 2050 at the Sani Garden construction site within Solar City in Sanim-myeon.

The event, hosted by the Southwest Coast Enterprise City Development, was attended by County Governor Myeong Hyun-gwan, Jeollanam-do Governor Kim Young-rok, members of the Jeollanam-do Provincial Council and Haenam County Council, Chairman Lee Ki-seung of Boseong Group, and residents of Sanim-myeon. They planted 2050 trees in Sani Garden, currently being developed in Solar City, and made a strong commitment toward carbon neutrality.

The Yeongam-Haenam tourism and leisure-type enterprise city development project, which includes the Guseong District covering about 20.9 million square meters (6.32 million pyeong) in Guseong-ri, Sanggong-ri, and Deoksong-ri of Sanim-myeon, Haenam-gun, had shown little progress for over a decade since being designated as a pilot project in 2005. However, it is now seeking new opportunities through the Jeonnam-type Smart Blue City development, part of Jeollanam-do’s Blue Economy initiative.

Solar City has the urban vision of a garden city, solar energy city, and smart city, aiming to create a smart city with self-sufficient functions such as jobs, tourism, housing, education, and medical care.

In particular, the 500,000 square meters (160,000 pyeong) Sani Garden, a complex cultural space, will serve as a representative space of the garden city, featuring themed walking trails, an art garden, a children’s garden, and a fruit garden. The first phase, the Garden Museum, is scheduled to open in 2023.

Solar City plans to attract a residential population of 36,600 people and 14,640 households, equipped with advanced infrastructure based on a beautiful natural environment embracing lakes, the sea, and gardens, as well as clean renewable energy.

The first phase, a 1.59 million square meters (480,000 pyeong) renewable energy industrial complex centered on the Solar City photovoltaic power plant with a capacity of 98 MW, has been completed, and Solar City Country Club opened last year.

Having been finally selected in the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s ‘2021 Regional Hub Smart City Development Project’ competition, Solar City plans to establish smart city infrastructure and service bases such as electric vehicle sharing services, shared vehicle autonomous parking services, autonomous shuttle buses, and the Solar City Metaverse.

In particular, Haenam-gun has gained significant momentum in revitalizing the enterprise city by attracting a carbon-neutral Edu Center worth 42.5 billion KRW to the enterprise city, followed by securing investment for the creation of a European Village theme park worth 570 billion KRW.

Accessibility to Solar City has also been improved, with the construction of a 10.8 km, four-lane round-trip enterprise city access road connecting Yeongam Seoho IC and Haenam Solar City scheduled for completion in August this year.

Additionally, the design for the expansion and paving of the local road between Masan and Sani is underway, which will enable direct access to the enterprise city from National Road No. 2 and the highway from Haenam, accelerating the revitalization of the enterprise city.

Governor Myeong Hyun-gwan stated, “Solar City will be developed as the nation’s most advanced carbon-neutral city in line with the visions of a garden city, solar energy city, and smart city. Besides establishing various infrastructures, we will do our best to maintain a pleasant environment, including creating a 4-hectare fine dust blocking forest by next year.”

Haenam=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Hyun kh0424@asiae.co.kr