Solar energy, wind power and goetherm as well as hydropower are viewed as important renewable energy sources.

“Many scientific research and educational institutions are now making practical renewable energy facilities and providing various technical services. A growing number of businesses are also manufacturing renewable energy equipment,” said Pak Wal Bin, vice-chairman of the Association for the Development and Utilization of Natural Energy of Korea.

According to him, the solar panel manufacturing centre of Kim Il Sung University has set up a production process of monocrystalline and polycrystalline silicon solar panel modules and research and development bases of electric power system facilities to produce equipment needed for the solar energy generation system for industrial use.

Kim Chaek University of Technology has developed a compound semi-conductor solar panel which is made of domestic materials and costs less than the silicon crystal solar panel by making a new transparent conducting glass for solar panel.

The Renewable Energy Development Company, the Natural Energy Institute of the State Academy of Sciences and several other units built large solar panel production processes to develop and produce solar panels and application products, giving a powerful impetus to the establishment of an electric power generation system based on them.

The Phyongsong Automation Appliances Factory in South Phyongan Province is playing a pacesetter’s role in the development of wind energy.

“The factory is focusing on increasing the efficiency of wind turbine in consideration of the fluctuating wind intensity,” said Kim Kwang Il, deputy-director of the Natural Energy Institute of the State Academy of Sciences specializing in the research on wind energy.

The national green energy development programme is bearing fruits.

Ryomyong Street in Pyongyang, representative of modern architectural beauty, has turned into a green, energy-saving one into which the photovoltaic power generating system, geothermal cooling and heating system and solar-powered heating system have been introduced. On the Jangchon Vegetable Cooperative Farm in Sadong District, Pyongyang, methane gas is used as fuel for cooking at all farmhouses and solar energy is used for lighting and heating water.

Many provinces, cities and counties are eager to exploit renewable energy resources.

At present, over a dozen units in Phyongsong City have installed wind turbines and benefit from them.

In particular, breeding loach farm generates enough electric power to be used for its management and operation, from hatching to production of fries, pumping and lighting, by using several wind turbines and solar panels.

A double power supply system based on wind turbine and solar panel has recently been introduced on a trial basis into the residential quarters of Yokjon-dong, Phyongsong City, winning growing popularity among residents.

The Nampho Urban Planning Institute in Nampho also installed over 140 film-type solar panels on the roofs of its buildings to establish a new power supply system.