The government here will invest about 100 billion won (US$87.64 million) into empirical research on various energy technologies this year, officials said Tuesday.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy unveiled the investment plan during a meeting with energy experts at a regional office of Korea Electric Power Corp. in Seoul.
The plan calls for increasing the government's spending on empirical research into new energy technologies by 24 billion won from last year to about 100 billion won in 2017, said the officials, noting that smart grids, new renewable energy and the energy storage system will be intensively studied.
Empirical research based on working power and energy transmission networks is indispensable to the commercialization of new energy technologies to enhance safety and performance, they explained. (Yonhap)