[News Terms] Beyond RE100, 'CF100'

CF100 stands for ‘Carbon-Free Energy 100%’. Its official name is ‘24/7 CFE (Carbon Free Energy)’. It is an international campaign aiming to supply all the electricity used by companies 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through carbon-free energy sources such as solar, wind, and nuclear power. The campaign was initiated in 2021 by UN Energy, a UN energy cooperation agency, and Google. Approximately 120 companies worldwide are participating, with 14 companies and institutions in Korea, including Samsung Electronics and Korea Electric Power Corporation.

24/7 CFE logo
Photo by 247 Clean Energy

RE100 (Renewable Electricity 100) is an international campaign aiming for companies to supply all the electricity they use with ‘renewable energy’ by 2050. RE100’s purpose is to achieve carbon neutrality solely through renewable energy. Renewable energy refers to energy generated from sources such as solar, bio, and wind that replace fossil fuels like petroleum. Launched in 2014 by The Climate Group, a UK-based multinational nonprofit organization, this campaign has 428 companies participating worldwide. In Korea, 36 companies including Samsung Electronics and Hyundai-Kia Motors are involved.

The goals of CF100 and RE100 are the same: to reduce carbon emissions. However, while RE100 is limited to renewable energy, CF100 includes not only renewable energy but also nuclear energy, hydrogen fuel cells, and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies. CF100 can be considered a stronger campaign than RE100. Additionally, RE100 does not recognize nuclear power. Therefore, to achieve RE100, all energy must be replaced with renewable energy, which ultimately means replacing nuclear energy with renewable energy. This is one reason why achieving RE100 is considered practically difficult.

There is also an argument that CF100 is a realistic alternative for Korea to achieve carbon neutrality. Korea faces significant site constraints for renewable energy production, and its solar and wind resources are not abundant enough to produce electricity consistently. With many mountainous areas and high population density, securing large-scale sites for solar or wind power facilities is challenging. Wind power has the drawback of producing energy intermittently if the wind speed does not exceed a certain threshold. Therefore, experts emphasize that CF100 and RE100 can have a complementary and symbiotic relationship.

President Yoon Suk-yeol delivering the keynote speech at the 78th UN General Assembly [Photo by YouTube]

The government is proactive about CF100. In May last year, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry jointly launched the ‘CFE Forum’. About 50 companies and organizations, including Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, POSCO, and GS Energy, participated in this forum. In September last year, President Yoon Suk-yeol proposed the formation of the ‘Carbon Free Alliance’, an international platform to promote carbon-free energy, during his keynote speech at the UN General Assembly. President Yoon stated that the ‘Carbon Free Alliance’ would be an open platform where not only companies worldwide but also governments and international organizations can participate.