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By Koh Hyunjeong

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety will designate over 500 "sunshine income villages" this year for eventual expansion to over 2,500 by 2030.

The ministry on March 24 announced this as part of a plan to build more such villages at a Cabinet meeting with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment.

The village follows a business model of an area installing solar power plants on idle land, farmland and reservoirs for energy self-sufficiency and profit sharing.

The project is expected to expand the use of solar energy nationwide amid high oil prices, raise energy autonomy and stimulate provincial economies.

"The sunlight income village is a new model of regional development that can simultaneously respond to the climate crisis and provincial decline," Minister of the Interior and Safety Yun Ho Jung said. "We will speed up the expansion of such villages nationwide."

hjkoh@korea.kr