Lee Jaemyung's "Sunlight Pension": Challenges Remain Over Farmland Regulation Easing and Power Grid Expansion [New Administration Policy Issues]

The implementation of the "Sunlight Pension," a program that pays out the profits from selling electricity generated by solar power installed by individual farms or village communities in the form of a pension, is expected to accelerate. The Sunlight Pension was a campaign pledge by President Lee Jaemyung, and the National Policy Planning Committee, which is tasked with outlining the new administration's five-year blueprint, has also instructed relevant ministries to actively pursue the Sunlight Pension initiative.

On June 23, a government official stated, "The Sunlight Pension is a presidential campaign pledge, and the National Policy Planning Committee has once again emphasized its commitment to this initiative," adding, "Relevant ministries are also actively reviewing implementation plans for the Sunlight Pension."

Agricultural solar power plant installed on farmland in Wolpyeong-eup, Yeomsan-myeon, Yeonggwang-gun, Jeollanam-do. Photo by Kang Jinhyung

The Sunlight Pension is a project that utilizes individual farmhouses, communal village facilities, or public land to generate solar power, with the proceeds from electricity sales paid to farms and villages. Not only individual farms but also village communities can participate jointly.

To implement the Sunlight Pension at the village level, it is first necessary to revise relevant regulations. Last year, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs announced the "Agricultural Solar Power Introduction Strategy." The core of this strategy is to allow solar installations on farmland in non-agricultural promotion areas owned by farmers who are actually engaged in farming. This is a limited introduction strategy designed to preserve farmland by allowing farming and power generation to coexist, thereby creating an additional source of income for farmers.

However, to utilize "publicly leased reserve farmland," which is one of the potential sites for solar installations for the Sunlight Pension, institutional improvements are required. The public reserve farmland system is operated by the Korea Rural Community Corporation, which purchases land and leases it to young people, return-to-farmers, and successor farmers who need land for cultivation. Since these are tenants who lease the land rather than owners, they are not permitted to install agricultural solar power systems.

In addition, farmland eligible for agricultural solar power is limited to non-agricultural promotion areas, rather than "agricultural promotion areas" where only farming is permitted. According to the Korea Rural Community Corporation, out of the total 17,454 hectares of public reserve farmland nationwide, the vast majority?17,122 hectares (98.1%)?are located in agricultural promotion areas. If limited to non-agricultural promotion areas, only 1.9% of public reserve farmland would be available for the Sunlight Pension program.

An official in the solar power industry stated, "It is necessary to design policies that distinguish between solar power at the individual farm level and at the village level," adding, "For individual farms, the existing standards should be maintained, while for villages, it may be appropriate to apply certain exceptions." This means that for individual farms, the existing government strategy?restricting installations to "self-farmed, non-agricultural promotion areas"?should be maintained to preserve farmland, while for village communities, policies should be developed to allow solar installations even on leased land and in agricultural promotion areas.

Expanding the power grid is also a challenge that must be addressed to implement the Sunlight Pension. To generate income from solar power, the electricity produced must be sold, which requires transmission and distribution networks to deliver electricity to consumers. However, there is already a backlog of applications for grid connections. According to Korea Electric Power Corporation's "Renewable Energy (Solar Power) Connection Status," as of May this year, the cumulative capacity of connection applications totaled 38.8 GW, of which 8.9 GW are still waiting for connection. This is equivalent to the output of nine 1 GW-class nuclear power plants. Due to insufficient grid capacity to transport electricity, it is impossible to sell the electricity produced. In particular, the backlog of connection applications is concentrated in the Honam region, where solar power generation is dense, with 2.4 GW in Jeonnam (including Gwangju) and 1.8 GW in Jeonbuk.

To address the issue of expanding the power grid, the government is promoting a policy that prioritizes Sunlight Pension support for residents in areas where high-voltage transmission lines are installed. The aim is to resolve the "power grid NIMBY (Not In My Backyard)" issue, which hinders the construction of transmission and distribution networks, by encouraging residents in areas traversed by the grid to participate in renewable energy projects such as solar and wind power. The government is also considering including residents of depopulated and energy-vulnerable regions as beneficiaries of the Sunlight Pension.