Transitioning to solar power as a source of the country's power will require 20 times more land compared with the country's current nuclear energy policy, an opposition lawmaker said Sunday.

Rep. Kim Jung-hoon of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party said that data provided by the National Assembly Budget Office shows that building a 1 megawatt reactor requires some 745 square meters of land, which includes cooling and other related infrastructure.

He said to get the same output from solar energy, a power company will have to secure 15,000 square meters of land, which can be very costly and difficult since land prices are relatively expensive in South Korea.

In regards to wind power, NABO said generalization is difficult as numbers fluctuate sharply depending on location, although it said for a 1 MW output it requires as few as 333 square meters and upwards of 2,412 square meters.
 

A coal-fired thermal power plant generating 1 MW will require between 213-4,182 square meters of land. The comparable figures for power plants using liquefied natural gas are around 192 square meters.

The comparison comes as the liberal Moon Jae-in administration has outlined a nuclear-free energy policy that will gradually scale back the 30 nuclear power plants in operation and those being built.

"If the government wants to expand the use of clean renewable energy to take the place of nuclear power, it must approach that matter in a methodical and careful manner starting from a plan to secure necessary land," the conservative party lawmaker said.

The LKP on the whole has opposed Moon's decision to get rid of nuclear reactors, which are a cheap and easy source of electricity. (Yonhap)