"Establishing Income Sources for Rural Areas"... South Chungcheong Province Accelerates Expansion of 'Sunlight Income Villages'

[Financial News, Hongseong = Reporter Kim Won-jun] South Chungcheong Province (Chungnam) has set out in earnest to expand the 'Sunlight Income Village' project, in which residents directly participate in solar power generation businesses and share the profits.
Chungnam announced on the 14th that it will begin holding village information sessions and actively seeking out idle public sites. The "Sunlight Income Village" is a mutually beneficial regional model in which solar power generation facilities are installed using idle land or public facilities within the village, and the profits generated are returned to residents as income and village funds. It is attracting attention as a new future source of income for rural and fishing communities, as it can simultaneously increase residents' income, expand the supply of renewable energy, and revitalize local communities.
Chungnam will hold customized on-site briefing sessions for 15 villages wishing to participate in the project by this coming December. During these sessions, the province plans to assess each village's readiness for the project and comprehensively review factors such as resident consensus, site suitability, power grid connection conditions, and the feasibility of securing self-financing, with the goal of minimizing initial trial and error.
Efforts to secure sites, a key prerequisite, are also being pursued in parallel. South Chungcheong Province (Chungnam) plans to identify over 200 excellent candidate sites suitable for solar power installation by conducting a detailed analysis of approximately 100,000 public properties owned by the province through a "service for identifying idle public sites." These candidate sites will be selected based on high feasibility through a comprehensive review of factors such as solar radiation, regulatory compliance, access roads, civil engineering conditions, and the possibility of connecting to the power grid; they will then be compiled into a database for future use by residents and municipalities.
Following the conditional selection of four villages in the first round of applications last July, 64 villages from 14 cities and counties applied for the second round, reflecting high interest. The final results of the second round are scheduled to be announced on the 30th. South Chungcheong Province (Chungnam) will continue to provide close support, including the formation of cooperatives and review of power-grid connections, with the goal of establishing 50 villages by the end of this year and over 300 by 2030.
Chungnam is also considering establishing a 'Smart Integrated Operations and Maintenance (O&M) System' to prevent efficiency degradation and breakdowns that may occur after the installation of power plants. Through cooperation with specialized energy agencies, the province plans to strengthen the post-installation management network by monitoring power generation in real time and providing pre-inspection services, thereby enabling rural villagers who lack expertise to generate stable revenue from power generation over the long term.
"The core of the Sunlight Income Village is the residents' willingness to participate and securing feasible development sites," said an official from South Chungcheong Province (Chungnam). "We will concentrate our administrative efforts on enabling residents to more easily participate in energy production and income generation through customized information sessions and the proactive identification of idle public sites."

[email protected] Kim Won-jun Reporter