The Urban Living Lab for Micro Solar Power System (SDG Living Lab) was a one-year
project, held in Seongdaegol energy self-reliant village (SDG),
from Sep 2016
to Aug 2017 led by four organizations: Energy and Climate Policy Institute,
Seongdaegol energy self-reliant village, Microcorps and Urban Sustainability
Transitions Lab in Yonsei University.
Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy delivered
funding for the project.
SDG, where the project was operated, took care of the recruitment
and management of village researchers.
SDG has been very active in local energy movements for seven years, conducting
innovative experiments (energy supermarket, solar car café, energy saving power
plant).
Microcorps is a company that invented micro solar panel, which is small
size & small capacity (less than 1kW) for household.
Urban Sustainability
Transitions Lab conducted base research on SDG, the local community.
Energy and
Climate Policy Institute was a project-leading institution, coordinating the
four organizations and reporting the project progress to the funding
organization.
SDG Living Lab aims to enhance the
acceptability of micro solar power system.
Micro solar power system refers to
the photovoltaic system whose capacity is less than 1kW, and can be installed
at apartment balcony as well as rooftop.
Micro solar power system for apartment
balcony, was invented to utilize the unique built environment of cities in
South Korea.
As 58.0% of the type of houses in Seoul consist of apartments, according
to Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS, 2017), installing the solar panel on the apartment
balcony started to be considered.
Although Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG)
has provided subsidies for micro solar power system since 2014, its provision
was in stuck.
SDG Living Lab found out several social and technological
barriers for this: cheap electricity fee, low home ownership rate, lack of
awareness, weak trust between companies and citizens and etc.
Three thematic working groups were organized to
overcome the identified barriers: technology(DIY), finance(solar loan) and
education&promotion(performing educational drama for children).
For each of
the working group, village researchers were recruited from SDG residents to
operate Living Lab.
SDG Living Lab has been considered a good practical case to
reflect the philosophy of Living Lab, user/citizen-led innovation, under the
circumstances that South Korea has almost no experiences on Living Lab.
For the detail, please download pdf file above.