The EU wants to increase its partnership with Korea when it comes to clean energy production, especially hydrogen and offshore wind.
According to Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission President, “This is not only a climate imperative, it is a strategic one. We see strong potential in the areas of hydrogen and offshore wind, and there is great potential to develop business partnerships in the nuclear energy space, including small modular reactors.”
According to her, the move will help bolster its energy safety at an important moment with the Middle East crisis and improve its competitiveness over the long term. There will be a further focus on semiconductors. Building on these advantages, broaden cooperation throughout research and innovation and also throughout the AI stack, she added. She further said that “Last year Korea joined Horizon Europe, so today we discussed how to continue this cooperation in the next programming period that starts in 2028.”
It is well to be noted that South Korea has recently launched auctions related to hydrogen-derived power, earmarking 500GWh of clean power and 930GWh of general power as it moves towards phasing out coal-fired power by 2040.
Those bidding for clean power contracts that will be awarded in the second half of 2026 have to meet an emissions limit of not more than 4 kg of carbon dioxide – CO2 per 1kg of hydrogen generated.
Apparently, clean energy has been firmly placed in the forefront recently at the European Sustainable Energy Week.