In this part of our series on North Korea’s energy sector, we move away from official and commercial uses of solar energy and seek to understand the growing use of solar power for personal energy consumption in a country where people still suffer from unreliable electricity supplies In the whole country .
Data from recent interviews with North Korean defectors confirm the striking lack of state electricity.[1] This shortage affects both urban and rural areas across the country, adversely affecting government facilities, homes and even the mobile phone connectivity that has become ubiquitous in daily life and the private economy of the North. Although alternative forms of energy exist – such as diesel power and illegal grid connections – for many the answer is a solar panel.
Interviews with defectors, along with North Korean state media and satellite imagery, point to a growth in personal solar installations over the past decade, as many citizens appear to have given up on expecting the government to provide adequate and constant electricity and are adopting a do-it-yourself attitude. , to live their lives.
How it works
A typical solar panel installation is simple: a solar panel on a roof or balcony is connected via a regulator to a large battery. During the day, electricity from the solar panel charges the battery. At night, the battery power can either be used to directly power low-voltage devices or fed through an inverter to provide 100-volt power for household appliances.
Estimates of the size of the panels varied in our interviews, but most were around 60 square centimeters. According to the interviewees, this is enough to provide at least 100 watts and turn on a small appliance every night.
The amount of power is limited by the battery capacity, the charge that can be supplied by the solar panel, and the actual amount of sunlight that can be used. Longer, brighter summer days provide more energy than shorter, darker winter days. One defector reported that the months of January to April were particularly bad, with cloudy and rainy days also leading to less energy.
We charged a battery using a solar panel made in China. We will charge it during the day. It was enough to provide electricity for one night. But on rainy or cloudy days, we cannot charge the solar panels. In theory we had electric cables [to our apartment]. They also wire in the rural areas, but we don’t really have electricity.[2]
The Rise of DPRK Citizen Solar
It’s been more than a decade since the first personal solar panels entered the country from China. Availability and prices began to improve after the 2012 Pyongyang International Trade Fair and have improved over the past five years as indoor panels have entered the market. A small solar panel can reportedly be purchased for around $15-$50, making it an attractive alternative to expensive generators and batteries.
“We rarely have electricity. We used solar panels. For generators, you have to have gasoline to power the generator, so only some families had them.[3]
The rise in domestic production of solar panels likely played a role in the price reduction. In 2017, a state media article indicated that personal solar energy was being actively promoted by the North Korean government, and television coverage in 2018 showed domestic production of solar panels at Kim Il Sung University.
Recent interviews with defectors offer a range of scenarios for how solar power is currently being used. Some of the more urban areas reported installing small panels to supplement state-provided electricity and power personal devices, while others in more rural areas discussed the need for personal solar panels due to extremely limited access to and inconsistent electricity supply.
Urban and rural solar installations
In general, access to electricity worsens the further one is from Pyongyang and other major cities. In more remote areas, solar panels are a must for government offices and facilities that require power to run throughout the day.
Such panels are difficult to see in satellite images due to their limited size, but are easily visible in images and videos of homes, such as those across the Yalu River from China.
These communities use their close proximity to the border to initiate trade and private economic activity and have access to more hard currency to purchase and transport panels from China. Two defectors from Hyesan who left North Korea in 2019 suggested that most of the city’s solar panels were from China, according to reports from around the same time.
In some cases, small solar powered devices can also be used. Solar versions of the “Notel” (노한) digital media player were available and directly charged an internal battery so required no other power supply.
Several defectors from rural areas reported that the electricity supply was so minimal and erratic that they often expected state power only on New Year’s Day and other national holidays, such as the North Korean leader’s birthday.
“[In my province,] we only get electricity for a few hours once a year.[4]
“There were many days when we had no electricity at all. When the leader gives the New Year address, that is the time when all the houses have stable electricity.”[5]
“Electricity was supplied on special days, such as Kim Il Sung’s birthdays. I remember when I was a kid we had more electricity, but it got worse over time.”[6]
In urban settings, the power situation is better, but not great.
“…There’s a very big gap and divide between people who get electricity and people who don’t.”[7]
Even in Pyongyang, solar panels seem common on buildings and homes to compensate for electricity shortages. Such panels can be seen on satellite images because they are usually larger. It is not clear if this is due to greater wealth in the capital allowing residents to buy larger panels and thus generate more energy, or if residents are working together to buy panels.
The image signature is unique. Industrial panels in factories and institutions are neatly installed in large arrays, while personal panels tend to be more or less placed wherever there is space with little coordination.
Personal arrays are also visible on the sides of buildings in separate windows.
In some places, the state appears to have fully embraced the individual solar route — a tacit admission of a systemic energy shortage. For example, in 2015, when the state built new individual solar panels and solar water heaters were included in houses and small housing units at the Jangchon Vegetable Cooperative Farm on the outskirts of Pyongyang.
North Korean defectors who have left the country in the past five years said they could expect only a few hours of electricity a day, and power came and went without warning, making planning impossible and supplemental sources essential.
[The electricity supply] it wasn’t regular and you weren’t told in advance. Some days you will have electricity all day; some days you won’t. Some days you will have an hour or two in the morning or afternoon. But they don’t tell you in advance when you will have it.[8]
For those with money, one way to supplement electricity supplies was by illegally connecting the grid to industrial electricity. With the right connections, it was also possible to tap into the more reliable trade lines to keep the factories running.
Hamhung is an industrial city and has factories that have to work 24 hours a day. So the people who live near the power plants have not had any problems with electricity because they can steal the electricity from the power plant. I had a neighbor who was a civil servant, so they had power.[9]
I’m moving forward
Insufficient and unstable power supply is one of the critical challenges that North Korea is struggling to deal with. Although solar energy has provided one way for citizens to better cope with this reality, it is unable to supply enough energy to meet daily operations and needs.
Solar energy is “most confined to land”, which highlights the need for alternative energy sources that can be used offshore, such as wind and wave technology, which we will cover in our next article.