One Less Nuclear Power Plant is the flagship energy policy launched in April 2012 by

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, the capital city of

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

, in its broad effort to respond to

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

and

energy crisis An energy crisis or energy shortage is any significant Bottleneck (production), bottleneck in the supply of energy resources to an economy. In literature, it often refers to one of the energy sources used at a certain time and place, in particu ...

in the aftermath of the

Fukushima nuclear accident The Fukushima nuclear accident was a major nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan, which began on 11 March 2011. The cause of the accident was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, whic ...

and the nationwide rolling blackout in 2011. The main target of the One Less Nuclear Power Plant was to cut energy consumption by 2 million

TOE Toes are the digits of the foot of a tetrapod. Animal species such as cats that walk on their toes are described as being ''digitigrade''. Humans, and other animals that walk on the soles of their feet, are described as being ''plantigrade''; ...

, which is equivalent to the capacity of one

nuclear power plant A nuclear power plant (NPP), also known as a nuclear power station (NPS), nuclear generating station (NGS) or atomic power station (APS) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power st ...

, mainly by directly engaging citizens in energy-saving and renewable energy generation. This target was exceeded in June 2014, six months ahead of schedule, as Seoul reduced the city’s energy consumption by 2.04 million TOE. The

Seoul Metropolitan Government The Seoul Metropolitan Government () is a local government of Seoul, South Korea. The mayor is elected to a four-year term by the citizens of Seoul and is responsible for the administration of the city government. The Seoul Metropolitan Governmen ...

announced the launch of the second phase of the One Less Nuclear Power Plant, Seoul Sustainable Energy Action Plan, in August 2014.

Key action plans

With “Energy Generation, Energy Efficiency, and Energy-Saving,” at its core, the One Less Nuclear Power Plant took a multi-faceted approach, consisting of 71 specific projects in 6 policy categories, which can be re-categorized in 10 key action plans. The six policy categories include expanding renewable energy generation, improving building

energy efficiency Energy efficiency may refer to: * Energy efficiency (physics), the ratio between the useful output and input of an energy conversion process ** Electrical efficiency, useful power output per electrical power consumed ** Mechanical efficiency, a rat ...

, promoting eco-friendly transportation system, generating green jobs, building a low energy-consuming city and creating a low energy-consuming civic culture.

Key achievements (as of June 2014)

The One Less Nuclear Power Plant presented set an example for local energy policies as it reached its target through unique means like Seoul Feed-in Tariff (FIT), and improved rent conditions for

photovoltaic power Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially ...

generation. The significance of the One Less Nuclear Power Plant lies in the fact that it is a civic-participatory governance policy, under which citizens took the lead in policy development and implementation. The energy-saving programs achieved the greatest cut in energy consumption at some 910,000 TOE, while energy efficiency and generation projects pushed down the total energy consumption by 870,000 TOE and 260,000 TOE respectively. As a result, Seoul’s consumption of energy including electricity, city gas, and oil turned downward. In 2013, when tangible outcomes of the Ones Less Nuclear Power Plant started to surface, Seoul’s electricity consumption decreased by 1.4%, whereas the nationwide consumption jumped by 1.76%.

Energy generation

Under the One Less Nuclear Power Plant, the Seoul Metropolitan Government attracted of about 400 billion won in private capital to generate electricity from clean renewable sources that could be supplied to 300,000 households. 63.5 billion won out of the total private investment was used to establish 3,756 photovoltaic power generation systems with the combined capacity of 69 MW.

Energy efficiency

Seoul implemented Building Retrofit Program (BRP) on 20,000 buildings by offering loans with ultra-low interest rates of 1.75% and adopting a first-invest-return-later approach. Moreover, 6.79 million energy-efficient

LED bulbs An LED lamp or LED light is an electric light that produces light using light-emitting diodes (LEDs). LED lamps are significantly more Electrical efficiency, energy-efficient than equivalent Incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamps and f ...

were introduced by Seoul. In particular, Seoul replaced 430,000 conventional bulbs in all 243 subway stations in the city with LED ones with the full financial support by the Korea Finance Corporation.

Energy-saving

The Eco-Mileage program, which incentives citizens’ energy-saving actions, saw its membership increase to 1.7 million, prompting energy-saving behaviors both at households and businesses. The Eco-Mileage program won the 2013 UN Public Service Award in the category of “Fostering participation in public policy decision making through innovative mechanisms.”

Brand identity

The brand identity (BI) of One Less Nuclear Power Plant was designed to reflect the vision of Healing city, Healing earth. The BI was a winning project from a civic competition, which was later retouched by Mr. Dong-min Ahn, the President of Intergram Graphics, local marketing design firm.

Slogan

:* Energy-saving people are the Green Power Plant that reduces one nuclear power plant :* Energy culture changed by citizens, happy transition by Seoul :* Energy saved together, One Less Nuclear Power Plant achieved together The slogans above were developed by citizens through a contest.

Mascot

Dongeuri the Sunlight Angel is the mascot of One Less Nuclear Power Plant, symbolizing the face of Seoul citizens who both save and generate energy. Dongueri was designed and donated by Mr. Ho-seop Yoon, Honorary Professor of

Kookmin University Kookmin University () is a Private university, private research university established in 1946 in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, South Korea. It has historic significance, as it was founded during by the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea and is ...

Awards

:* 1. UN Public Service Award – in the category of fostering participation in public policy decision making through innovative mechanisms. (2013) :* 2.

World Green Building Council The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) is a non-profit organisation and global network of national Green Building Councils (GBCs). It has member councils in over 70 countries worldwide, which collectively have 49,000 members (25,000 member ...

(WGBC) Government Leadership Awards – in the category of Climate Action Leadership Award (2013) :* 3. World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF)’s 2014 Earth Hour City Challenge (EHCC) – in the category of the National Capital of the 2014 EHCC (2014)

References

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External links

Official website of One Less Nuclear Power PlantClimate and Environment Headquarters of Seoul Metropolitan GovernmentSeoul Energy Dream CenterEco-MileageWeekly No-Driving DayRecycling Flea MarketResource Recovery FacilityEnvironmental Dispute Coordination CommissionSeoul Environmental Impact AssessmentSeoul Air Quality InformationAsbestos Control Information system
Government of Seoul Energy policy Renewable energy policy Nuclear power in South Korea