Energy in South Korea describes energy and electricity production, consumption and importation in South Korea.
South Korea's mineral production is not adequate to meet its need for manufacturing. The country imports bituminous and anthracite coal and crude petroleum. In 1987, 23.4 million tons of anthracite coal, 4,000 tons of tungsten, 565,000 tons of iron ore, and 47,000 tons of zinc ore were mined. Copper, lead, molybdenum, gold, silver, kaolin, and fluorite also were mined in lesser quantity (see fig. 9).
Energy producers were dominated by government enterprises, although privately operated coal mines and oil refineries also existed. In 1990, South Korea still had no proven oil reserves. Exploration until the 1980s in the Yellow Sea and on the continental shelf between Korea and Japan did not find any offshore oil, but the search continued. Coal supply in the country was insufficient and of low quality. The potential for hydroelectric power was limited because of high seasonal variations in the weather and the concentration of most of the rainfall in the summer. Accordingly, the government increasingly focused on developing nuclear power generation.
Read more about Energy In South Korea: Overview, Electric Power, Global Warming
Famous quotes containing the words energy and/or south:
“The scholar may be sure that he writes the tougher truth for the calluses on his palms. They give firmness to the sentence. Indeed, the mind never makes a great and successful effort, without a corresponding energy of the body.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)