The South Korean government has launched a committee to rebuild the country’s domestic solar supply chain and push next-generation cell technology, as Chinese manufacturers continue to gain ground in its home market.
South Korea’s Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment (MCEE) launched a new solar industry competitiveness committee on Sept. 10, aiming to rebuild the country’s domestic solar supply chain and secure a foothold in next-generation cell technology.
The MCEE said the committee brings together government, public institutions, industry, academia, research bodies and civil society groups.
It said in a press release that the committee will collect feedback from companies on difficulties they face in domestic localization efforts, develop cooperation models across the domestic value chain, and plan large-scale demonstration sites for next-generation technologies including tandem cells and inverters.
According to South Korea’s First Renewable Energy Basic Plan, published in May, the country aims to reach 100 GW of renewable capacity by 2030, up from about 37.1 GW at the time of the plan’s announcement, with a goal of restoring the domestic solar industry ecosystem.
The plan calls for roughly 56.2 GW of new solar capacity, split between 12 GW of large grid-connected complexes and 44.2 GW from designated sites including industrial rooftops, agrivoltaic and floating installations, transport corridors, and public buildings, according to the plan.
The push comes as Chinese manufacturers have gained significant ground in South Korea’s domestic solar market. Korea Energy Agency figures show that Chinese-made modules accounted for 69.3% of installed capacity in South Korea in 2025, up from a minority share in 2019, when domestic modules held 78.4% of the market. The same data indicates an estimated 95% of cells and 60% of modules sold domestically are Chinese-made.
Separate government and industry announcements show South Korea has moved to introduce a domestic production tax credit tied to output volumes. The MCEE said the committee will also help shape broader industry support measures, building on that effort.
Those separate announcements also show that Korea Electric Power Corp. (Kepco), South Korea’s state utility, launched a subsidiary, Kepco Technology Holdings, in late August. The new company was initially capitalized at KRW 20 billion ($14.9 million) and is set to grow to by as much as KRW 100 billion over five years, to commercialize public-sector patents and partner with seven domestic inverter manufacturers.
According to South Korea’s seven SEED (Future Growth) projects, announced separately in August, the government has set a target of 35% or higher efficiency for perovskite-silicon tandem cells and commercialization by 2028.
That timeline is ambitious relative to industry benchmarks: the International Technology Roadmap for Photovoltaic (ITRPV), an annual industry-consensus forecast for solar manufacturing technology, projects mass-production tandem cell efficiencies of around 28.8% by 2028, rising to 32.3% by 2036, as silicon-based tandem technology gradually enters volume production through the following decade.
Lee Ho-hyun, second vice minister at the MCEE, said the solar industry is at a critical turning point as it shifts from conventional silicon technology to next-generation alternatives. He claimed that the committee’s work will build a robust industrial ecosystem through industry-academia-research cooperation and help South Korean companies lead global markets through export growth.
The new committee builds on an earlier push: South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance said in November 2025 it would allocate KRW 33.6 billion toward perovskite-silicon tandem research, targeting 28%-efficient commercial modules by 2030 – a goal the new committee’s 35% efficiency target for 2028 now significantly exceeds.
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