The Korea Energy Economics Institute in Seoul estimates that 2.88mn solar panels, mostly small units used to power electronic devices and LED lamps, are now in use across North Korea, accounting for an estimated 7 per cent of household power demand.
Larger solar installations have also sprung up at factories and government buildings over the past decade. Jeong-hyeon, a North Korean escapee, told the Financial Times that many residents in Hamhung, the second-most populous city, “relied on a solar panel, a battery and a power generator to light their houses and power their television”.
The regime has accelerated the construction of solar installations over the past decade, according to the Stimson Center, with a wind and solar farm run by the air force and panels on the finance ministry, central bank, foreign exchange bank and IT ministry as well as an ice cream factory outside Pyongyang and a chicken farm.
A solar panel installation at an ice cream factory in Pyongyang. Over the past decade, the regime has accelerated the manufacture of solar panels © Korea Central Television via 38 North The need for alternative power sources is even more acute in remote areas.
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