One parish in a Korean Diocese has one self-consumption solar power plant and two commercial solar power plants installed. The two commercial solar power plants can produce over 79 kilowatts of electricity. Last year, the parish's annual electricity consumption was 34,000 kilowatt-hours. The electricity produced by the two commercial solar power plants alone was 88,000 kilowatt-hours, far exceeding the parish's annual electricity consumption. The surplus electricity from the parish is sold to Korea Electric Power Corporation and flows back into the regional power grid.
There is a growing trend of using empty spaces to build solar power plants to generate and consume electricity. In one Korean diocese, more than 30 churches have installed solar power plants. The head of the Social Evangelization Committee said, "We thought this would be a way to address the problems caused by high-voltage transmission towers by demonstrating to the local community that we are using the electricity we produce ourselves."
Behind the active movement in the diocese is the "Sunlight Power Cooperative," established in 2019. Three years after the cooperative was established, the Diocese officially declared "carbon neutrality by 2040," expanding the energy transition as a task for the entire diocese.
"Now, the number of priests who want to install solar power plants in their parishes is increasing, and if we combine all the parishes that have requested it, there are at least 10 parishes applying (currently), and if we calculate that in kilowatts, it's over 1,000 kilowatts."
The number of cooperative members is also increasing each year, reaching over 2,600 as of the end of last year, with capital contributions totaling 4.1 billion won. Members also received dividends of around 3% last year.
The Seoul Archdiocese is relatively slow in installing solar power plants. This is due to significant physical constraints, such as land availability, inherent in Seoul's geographical characteristics.
The Chairman of the Seoul Archdiocese's Ecology and Environment Committee stated that they are considering installing solar power plants near Seoul to supplement the archdiocese's electricity consumption with renewable energy produced there. They got the idea from the agricultural-type solar power plant created by the Vatican near Rome.
"The Seoul Archdiocese is also considering installing solar power plants in other regions of Korea under the name of the Seoul Archdiocese, and if renewable energy is produced through solar power there, we think it might be possible to supplement the electricity used by the Seoul Archdiocese with that."
The movement for energy self-reliance within the church is starting from the parishes.
